Vector app in personal info glitch

A glitch in electricity network provider Vector’s outage app means the personal information of up to 35,000 customers might have been accessed by others.

The glitch has made customers’ names, email addresses, physical locations and phone numbers accessible to anyone who has downloaded the app.

The Vector app allows customers to view an outage map, as well as report individual outages.

It came under scrutiny earlier this month when a monster storm knocked tens of thousands of Aucklanders off the grid.

Vector’s chief digital officer Nikhil Ravishankar said the company had been made aware of a vulnerability in the app. “It has been brought to our attention that as many as 35,000 customers may have had this identifying information accessed at some point last week,” she said.

“We believe the accessible information includes the names, phone numbers and email addresses of customers who reported an outage through the app as well as data which could lead to the identification of their address.”

Ravishankar said no customers’ financial or banking information was held in the app, and the data breach had not compromised the security of their network or website.

A reader who contacted Stuff found they were able to access 33,000 listings of Vector customers’ details.

The app had been disabled in the meantime, until Vector could have total confidence in customers’ data.

— Alice Peacock