Deutsche Telekom this week was forced to suspend all activities of its Online Business Service Operation Centre (OBSOC), a German version of the Microsoft's Passport system, which enables customers to order and pay for online services and products.

German Chaos Computer Club (CCC), Europe's largest hacker group, discovered a security hole that they fear may already have been exploited. Hackers could have had access to records of businesses and their customers and change all kinds of data for almost a year.

The security hole was discovered by ICT expert Dirk Heringhaus, who accidentally entered the wrong client number and discovered he had access to records of other businesses. Heringhaus immediately reported the security hole to Deutsche Telekom in May 2003, and although the company says it did fix the problems, CCC discovered the security hole was still open.

Approximately 120,000 customers will now need a new password for the system, which was developed with Microsoft Services. On Friday the services were still not restored. ®

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