350,000 get email back after lockdown

Eircom restored its email service to 350,000 customers in a “controlled and phased” manner yesterday after a lockdown earlier this week to prevent a security threat.

The company’s eircom.net email users had no access to their accounts while Eircom staff worked overnight to make a number of system modifications.

The system was locked down at 6.30pm on Tuesday, minutes after an “intrusion on the perimeter” of the email service was detected.

A spokesman said the action, taken to eliminate any threat to Eircom’s customers, was in accordance with their security procedures and industry best practice.

“As a precaution, we have alerted relevant bodies including the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner,” he said.

It is understood while there was concern there might have been a security breach, none was discovered.

The company found no evidence to suggest any impact to other Eircom systems or services, including customer data.

“Our investigations will continue into the cause of the intrusion,” the spokesman said.

However, in line with industry best practice, Eircom strongly recommended customers change their email account password.

Many Eircom customers complained on Twitter that the prolonged interruption in the company’s email service had caused problems for their businesses.

Eircom said that all pending emails had been stored and would be delivered as soon as possible.

“We are very sorry that this has caused a significant inconvenience to users of our email service,” the company said.