07/24/2014 -Hackers have stolen e-mail addresses and contact data from a public European Central Bank (ECB) database, according to anannouncement by the bank on Thursday. However, no market sensitive data was compromised in the breach.

The ECB database that was compromised was part of a separate system that serves part of the public�ECB Web site that gathers registrations for events, such as ECB conferences and visits. This database is physically separate from any internal ECB systems, the bank said in its announcement.

ECB became aware of the theft when an anonymous e-mail was sent to the bank seeking �financial compensation for the data,� according to a press release. �While most of the data was encrypted, parts of the database included e-mail addresses, some street addresses, and phone numbers that were not encrypted. The database also contains data on downloads from the ECB Web site in encrypted form.�

The bank is currently contacting people whose information might have been compromised and has changed all passwords in its system as an added precaution.

It has also notified the German police, who have begun an investigation into the theft. However, no arrests have been made and a spokesperson for the Frankfurt prosecutor�s office would not comment on whether authorities had any suspects, The New York Times reports.

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