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DPC urges Jobs.ie customers to be wary
31-03-2008
by Emmet Ryan

The Data Protection Commissioner's (DPC) office has urged those affected by last week's security breach at recruitment website Jobs.ie to be on their guard.

The call comes after Jobs.ie was hacked on Thursday, 27 March, resulting in customer data such as CVs being lost. The hackers accessed the job applications area of the site and proceed to then download personal information from CVs submitted, along with job applications. Most of the stolen information relates to archived CVs rather than those of users currently looking for jobs. The company has been in touch with those affected to warn them of the possibility that they may be contacted by malicious parties.

Contrary to media reports, the DPC told ENN that, as of Monday morning, it had yet to be formally contacted in relation to the matter. The DPC said that the nature of the potential data lost was a cause for concern.

"We don't know yet what information was in the data stolen but CVs tend to contain contact information like phone numbers," said Gary Davis, deputy commissioner with the DPC. Davis said that contact made via phone by cyber criminals might leave customers more open to attack than unsolicited e-mails.

"Most people are reasonably aware about the dangers associated with unsolicited e-mails but they might be more inclined to be more responsive to someone who rang them claiming to be from their bank," he said. Davis urged users of Jobs.ie to be more wary about potential phone contact made as a result of the breach and to take measures to protect their personal data.

As yet it is still unclear as to how many users of the site were affected. Jobs.ie declined to reveal the full scale of the breach to ENN as the firm's investigation into the attack is still ongoing but a spokesperson for the recruitment website said the hack affected "a small percentage" of Jobs.ie's customers.

A 24-hour customer helpline has been set up to deal with any further questions or concerns users of the site may have regarding the breach at 01 6808699. Queries can also be sent via e-mail to info@jobs.ie