• MultiChoice, which owns Showmax, confirms that more than 27 000 usernames and passwords were found online following a recent data breach.
• The discovery was made in a hacker forum by local publication, MyBroadband.
• Showmax says users who were affected by the breach have been automatically logged out of their accounts and prompted to do a password reset.

UPDATE: Hypertext has reached out to MultiChoice for clarity on the breach and is awaiting feedback on a number of questions. In the interim, MultiChoice has informed us that it was not in fact 27 000 Showmax accounts that were impacted, but rather a far smaller amount.

THE ORIGINAL STORY FOLLOWS BELOW.

South African companies are two for two when it comes to notable data breaches in as many weeks, as Showmax has confirmed that it was recently hacked.

This after local technology publication MyBroadband found a post on a hacker forum claiming that it had over 27 000 Showmax usernames and passwords. MultiChoice, which owns Showmax for all intents and purposes, confirmed that the post was indeed correct after the publication queried the discovery.

“We are aware that some subscriber emails and passwords have been posted online. Our dedicated cybersecurity team immediately initiated a thorough investigation to assess the incident’s scope and nature,” an unnamed MultiChoice spokesperson noted in a statement.

Perhaps most concerning though, as was the case in the recent JD Group breach, is that it was only disclosed after a publication discovered it as opposed to the company responsibly disclosing of its own accord.

At the time of writing, no mention has been made as to how the data was gleaned by hackers, but MultiChoice does state that it has since taken proactive steps.

“In cases where user passwords may be compromised, affected users are automatically logged out of their accounts and prompted to reset their passwords,” the company added.

As a general guidance when incidents like this happen, we suggest checking out Have I Been Pwned, along with resetting your Showmax account password in any case.

While MultiChoice says no banking details or personal information was stolen, having access to usernames and passwords could be used by hackers to launch phishing attacks on unsuspecting Showmax customers, requesting payments or asking for more information under the guise of the company.

To find out more about the recent incident, we suggest giving the MyBroadband story a read.

[Source – MyBroadband]