Theft at the Ashmolean!

Oxford’s Ashmolean museum suffered an unusual heist earlier this week when the personal details of almost 8,000 people were stolen from it’s online database.

7,757 visitors had their names, email addresses and telephone numbers pinched during the security breach, thought to be the first time the Ashmolean has come under successful cyber attack.

The museum sought to calm worried patrons via the medium of a large block of small text

Ashmolean spokesman Claire Parris was quick to stress that “No financial information and no sensitive personal data were exposed in the attack.”, however the identity and the motives of the hacker remain unknown.

The museum is now consulting with the the university’s IT services to prevent future attacks. The breach could have been far more serious as the hacker was interrupted and block during his heist.

Ionic order columns offer little protection against today’s modern cyber criminal

But a leading security expert has accused the museum of taking a blasé attitude of the risk to its patrons. Graham Cluley, speaking to the Guardian, warned that “It’s easy to imagine how scammers could use the telephone contact details and information about when people have visited the museum to trick the unwary into believing that it is the museum contacting them. This would be a pretty convincing ruse, and could lead to innocent members of the public being stung for donations.”

The last major theft at the museum occurred on the night of the millenium, when a Cezanne valued at £3 million was stolen to order. 14 years later the painting has still not been recovered.