While security breaches are nothing new, they still pose significant inconvenience to those directly affected, particularly when personal information and privacy is involved.
For instance, an incorrectly configured database exposed the information of 191 million US voters to the public internet just before the end of last year, prompting authorities to shut it down. Earlier in December, a vulnerability dubbed "CardCrypt" was detected by Wandera, after it discovered that 16 global companies had failed to encrypt traffic to the payment portion of their websites and apps.
Unfortunately, for Acer customers, the company suffered a data breach of its own which has affected its US e-commerce site. Customers who have used the site between May 12, 2015 and April 28, 2016 may have had their personal information accessed by an unauthorized third party.
According to a letter filed with the California Attorney General"s office, information affected by the breach potentially included names, addresses, credit cards, expirations dates and CCV security codes. Acer"s letter goes on, stating that:
We do not collect Social Security numbers, and we have not identified evidence indicating that password or login credentials were affected.
The company stopped short of providing free credit monitoring to impacted customers unlike Experian, T-Mobile"s credit checking partner, and Target both whom suffered data breaches of their own during the last few years. Instead, Acer has recommended that customers remain vigilant and review their account statements and free credit reports for indications of fraud.
At present, Acer has yet to disclose similar incidents impacting operations in other countries.
Source: Softpedia