Bell Canada alerts customers who may be affected by data breach

TORONTO — Bell Canada is alerting some customers that their information has been illegally accessed in a potential data breach.

The company’s notice doesn’t say how many Bell customers were affected but media reports say the total could be 100,000.

Bell says the information consisted primarily of names and email addresses and that there’s no indication that any credit card, banking or other information was accessed.

A Bell Canada executive vice-president, John Watson, apologized on behalf of the company.

Watson also says additional security, authentication and identification requirements have been implemented.

The announcement comes eight months after Bell Canada revealed that an anonymous hacker had obtained some customers’ names and telephone numbers as well as email addresses.

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The Canadian Press