National Lottery: Thousands of online accounts hacked

National Lottery operator Camelot says it believes thousands of players' online accounts have been hacked.

The National Lottery operator said it discovered "suspicious activity" following online security monitoring on Monday.
Camelot said it believes "around 26,500 players' accounts were accessed", but fewer than 50 accounts have had activity take place since the hack.

In a statement, Camelot said: "We are currently taking all the necessary steps to fully understand what has happened, but we believe that the email address and password used on the National Lottery website may have been stolen from another website where affected players use the same details.

"We do not hold full debit card or bank account details in National Lottery players' online accounts and no money has been taken or deposited.

"However, we do believe that this attack may have resulted in some of the personal information that the affected players hold in their online account being accessed."

Some of the activity includes personal details being changed and, Camelot said, some of those details might have been legitimately changed by the players themselves.

The lottery organiser says it is contacting those players involved and helping them "re-activate their accounts security".

Camelot also says it has put a change of password in place for all the 26,500 players whose accounts were accessed and is contacting them so they can reset their own password.

The operator said it also wanted to make clear that there had been no unauthorised access to core National Lottery systems or any of its databases, which would affect draws or payment of prizes.

The statement continued: "Cyber criminals such as this are persistent, and we are continuing to monitor and protect our systems.

"We are also working closely with the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre on an ongoing basis on this criminal matter. 

"We'd like to reassure our customers that protecting their personal data is of the utmost importance to us.

"We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause to our players and would like to encourage those with any concerns to contact us directly, so we can discuss it with them in more detail."