Eircom Restores Webmail Service After ‘Intrusion’

Eircom, the former Irish state-owned telecoms monopoly, has restored access to its webmail service, two days after it was shut down following the detection of a malicious attack.

Engineers worked throughout the night on 29 April to implement a number of system modifications and access was being restored in a “controlled and phased” manner yesterday, a process which has now been completed.

Eircom webmail

The company says there is no indication that a breach has occurred, but recommends that users change their password as a precaution and promises that all pending email has been stored and will be delivered as soon as possible.

“We detected an intrusion on the perimeter of our email service and in accordance with our security procedures and industry best practice, we took immediate steps to lock down our email service and eliminate any threat to our 350,000 eircom.net email users,” said teh company.

“At this time, there is no evidence to suggest any impact to other Eircom systems or services including customer data. Our investigations will continue into the cause of the intrusion.

“We are very sorry that this has caused a significant inconvenience to users of our email service.”

The company has alerted the authorities of the intrusion and has also notified the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, the Irish equivalent of the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Eircom was privatised in 1999 and currently operates Ireland’s fixed line telephone network, as well as a 3G and 2G mobile network under its Meteor brand, and offers broadband services.

Earlier this year, Yahoo reported that its mail service had been hit by attackers with a number of user names and passwords compromised.

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