Nokia’s online app developer comunity has been hacked, and members personal details may have been stolen, the phone maker has announced.
The company warned that members’ personal information, including dates of birth and email addresses may have been stolen.
Nokia’s developer forums have been temporarily shut down while the security breach is investigated.
So far no-one has claimed responsibility for the attack and no compromised information has yet appeared elsewhere on the internet.
In a statement, posted on the community website, Nokia explained how the hackers had managed to gain access.
It said: “A database table containing developer forum members’ email addresses has been accessed, by exploiting a vulnerability in the bulletin board software that allowed an SQL Injection attack.”
SQL attacks are a common method of breaking a website’s security. Typically, hackers will target an open part of the system, such as a log-on screen, and attempt to confuse it by injecting code that it was not designed to cope with.
Nokia did not reveal the scale of the hack, but suggested that it may have been extensive.
“Initially we believed that only a small number of these forum member records had been accessed, but further
investigation has identified that the number is significantly larger,” said the statement.
The company said that no credit card details had been taken, but warned that additional contact details, such as Skype addresses, may have been stolen.