The accounts of thousands of MWeb broadband customers appear to have been compromised, with their logon and password details apparently published on the Internet by hackers.

As many as 2 390 users of MWeb’s business digital subscriber lines have been affected.

TechCentral has a list of the compromised accounts as well as the Web address where they’ve been published. But we’ve decided not to reveal the address and other details in order to protect users’ confidential details.

The list, which includes accounts belonging to several prominent businesses, including Pinnacle Micro, Africa Cash & Carry, Phumelela Gaming and Leisure, and Bloomberg, is headed by a racist message and provides details about how MWeb’s systems were compromised.

MWeb CEO Rudi Jansen says the company became aware of the problem shortly before being contacted by TechCentral. He says details are “still a bit sketchy” but says the company is investigating the option of serving a take-down notice on the company hosting the website with the list of compromised user data.

Jansen says the users affected are only those who were on the Internet Solutions backbone and not all of the accounts are still active. He says MWeb will notify all affected customers, asking them to change their passwords. The company will also issue a press release later on Monday providing more details of the incident. – Duncan McLeod, TechCentral