Researchers at Comparitech have uncovered a leak stemming from third-party apps used by Amazon UK, Ebay and Shopify, exposing 8 million sales records containing customers’ personal data. Exposed data includes customer names, email addresses, shipping addresses, purchases and the last four digits of credit card numbers.
Leaked Personally Identifiable Information (PII) opens customers up to the very real possibility of phishing attacks. Whilst SonicWall’s 2020 Threat Report noted that phishing attacks were down 42% last year, this is because they are becoming more targeted and malicious, leveraging much-trusted PDFs and Microsoft Office as the delivery vehicle of choice.
Because companies collect so much consumer data these days, it is more important than ever that they have the security in place to avoid data loss – the larger or more sensitive a company’s data collection, the bigger target it is and the more risk it has if hit.
Personal information is simply too valuable on the Dark Web. As long as stolen data continues to fetch high prices and equip perpetrators with the means necessary to carry out attacks, hold victims ransom, extort information or destroy property, organisations must exhaust all measures to diligently detect and protect their networks, devices and users.