Philips Electronics suffers website security breach as hackers strike

Philips Electronics has become the latest high-profile company to be hit by hackers after huge amounts of data stored on its internal systems were compromised, according to reports.

According to The Hacker News, the hackers, named ‘bch195' and ‘HaxOr', claimed to have compromised a server owned by the company that contained huge swathes of data, including 200,000 email addresses, that they intend to try and sell on.

The firm also posted links to screen grabs of the information it has hacked on Pastebin.

A spokesperson for the company told V3 that it was aware of the incident and has taken action to minimise its impact.

“Within an hour Philips became aware of the event, the compromised server was shut down. We are assessing the nature and extent of information that may have been accessed and a full investigation is in place,” they said.

“We are following our standard security incident investigative procedure when dealing with a potential criminal cyber security act. Because of the potentially criminal nature of activity described in the public claims, Philips is collaborating with law enforcement.”

John Stock, senior security consultant at security firm Outpost24, said the incidents was just another in a series of hacks that showed firms are not doing enough to protect themselves from possible web attacks.

"The fact that some 200,000 email addresses were purportedly stolen goes to show the damage that hackers can do with even limited access to systems and data," he said.

"Large and small companies need to do more to avoid breaches of this nature. Proactive measures should be undertaken to analyse all websites owned by the company to ensure that security remains watertight, no matter how unimportant the website may seem."

In particular, he warned businesses that they must ensure all components of their websites are secure, noting the similarities between this attack and those that blighted Sony last year.

"Once again, smaller websites have been targeted, most likely due to the fact that they often provide a softer target for hackers looking for vulnerabilities, much like the attack against Sony Pictures in 2011, which hit a redundant competition website," he added.