MOBILE phone giant O2 moved to reassure its customers today over a security breach on its website.

It emerged today that internet users could access people's phone accounts through a glitch in the log-on system.

The company said the web page loophole allowed customers modifying their passwords to view the names, addresses and bill details of other customers.

Payment details could not be accessed.

The glitch was spotted by a user, who contacted O2 to tell the firm about the error.

The faulty page has now been removed.

A company spokesman said: "This page could only be seen by those who requested password assistance.

"The problem has been rectified as we have withdrawn this page from view.

"We do not hold bank or credit card information on the customer's account pages so there was no risk whereby goods and services could be fraudulently purchased."

He added: "The majority of our customers do not use this online facility to manage their bills."

The problem site could be accessed by customers who wanted to modify their passwords and were sent a page link by email.

It was then possible to make guesses at memorable information stored by the company to identify individual customers, thereby allowing access to their information.

O2 said it planned to investigate the problem further to understand how it had occurred.

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