The attackers infiltrated the company's networks and posted username and password details of a staggering 9,816 Foxtons customers online. It is currently unclear how the attackers got into Foxtons' networks to steal the information and at the time of publishing the estate agent had not responded to V3's request for comment on the attack.
However, a number of customers confirmed to V3 that they had received an email from Foxtons, telling them about the breach and to change their passwords, and verified that the information in the data dump was correct. Foxtons is one of many companies that have suffered breaches in recent months. Numerous big-name companies including Apple and Nasdaq have suffered similar attacks on their developer and community forums.
Director of cyber security at Thales UK, Ross Parsell, cited the attacks as proof that businesses need to rethink their cyber defence strategies. "The recent spate of high-profile data breaches, such as this alleged attack on Foxtons, are evidence that organisations are either not taking cyber security seriously or are bewildered by the problem. Regulation in this case is a necessity to alter corporate behaviour," he said.
"Once the full extent of the cyber threat is uncovered, greater collaboration on cyber issues should lead to an improvement in cyber awareness and cyber standards."
Increased collaboration between businesses has been a central part of the UK government's ongoing Cyber Security Strategy. Most recently the government officially launched two cyber incident response initiatives to help UK firms better respond to cyber attacks.
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