Reality TV hopefuls are prepared to bare all for a chance at insta-celebrity. But prospective contestants for the new Simon Cowell show X-Factor probably didn’t expect that their names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers to be up for grabs.
Alas, that’s how it turned out after a network breach at Fox Broadcasting digorged data on 250,000 applicants.
According to a report in the Daily star, which broke the story, representatives for Fox informed the FBI that a computer network containing “top-secret information” regarding the music mogul’s latest creation had been breached. X-Factor is already popular in the UK and is slotted to premier on US network, FOX, sometime this year.
The breach was reported by Fox on May 2, according to datalossdb.org, an online data breach database. Among the data compromised in the hack were the names, dates of birth, email addresses, zip codes, and phone numbers of some 250,000 applicants.
In an email to those affected, the FOX Broadcasting Corporation confirmed that the breach occurred, disclosed the information they believe was compromised, and warned X-Factor hopefuls to be on the lookout for phishing scams, but assured them that no financial information had been stolen.
This is just the latest, and perhaps most obscure, in a slew of data breaches targeting everyone from oniline gaming platforms and security companies to restaurants and email marketing firms.
