Data breaches are becoming an unfortunate norm in the digital age, with new reports of customer information leaking to unauthorized parties surfacing on a near-monthly basis.
Last month, both Sears and Delta discovered customers’ payment information may have been compromised. The root of the issue was said to be an online chat module provided by a third-party company.
The dates of the leaks seem to be between September and October of 2017. Sears noted that fewer than 100,000 customers may have had their credit card numbers exposed, while those customers using the store’s own brand of credit cards aren’t believed to have been affected.
Delta released a statement, saying: “At this point, even though only a small subset of our customers would have been exposed, we cannot say definitively whether any of our customers’ information was actually accessed or subsequently compromised.”
The airliner has also created a website for the occasion, offering information about the breach. They’ve stated customers will not be held accountable for any tampering with their account as a result of the breaches.
Though a relieving sentiment given the circumstances, the situation has nonetheless highlighted the problems associated with keeping customer data safe from hackers.
Best Buy can also be added to the list of companies affected by data breaches. The electronics giant announced some of their customers’ data had been compromised as well. They go through the same company that provided chat support to Sears and Delta, [24]7.ai.
Best Buy released a statement noting they were working to find out exactly what information was affected and whether or not their chat function would be compromised in the future. They were optimistic about the bad situation, stating they believed only a small fraction of their customers had been affected by the data breach.
This breach was also believed to have occurred between September and October of 2017. The company has stated they’re looking for the vulnerabilities that could’ve caused the problem but did not give a timeline for when the issues are expected to be fixed.
Popular fitness apparel company Under Armour also announced they were the victim of a data breach, stating around 150 million user accounts for the MyFitnessPal app had been hacked.
After encouraging users to change their passwords and monitor their accounts for any suspicious activity, Under Armour said they were working with law enforcement and leading data security firms to try and identify the source of the breach.
Everything from users’ names to email addresses to hashed passwords may have been compromised, though payment info and social security numbers are stored separately and are not believed to have been affected.
The concerning string of data breaches may warrant investigations into the affected companies and the third-party specialists they turn to for securing digital records. With more instances being reported more often, companies may need to make serious changes to their data storage practices moving forward. They may also be subject to more regulatory oversight regarding digital records.
