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Barnes & Noble experienced a cyberattack Oct. 10 that may have exposed the personal details of customers, according to a recent warning issued by the company.
The warning says Barnes & Noble’s corporate systems were attacked in the data breach. Though customers’ financial information was not compromised, CNN Business reports email addresses, personal information and transaction histories may have been exposed.
“The systems impacted … did contain your email address and, if supplied by you, your billing and shipping address and telephone number,” a warning recently sent to consumers affected by the breach said.
In the FAQ section of the warning, Barnes & Noble reassures consumers no transactions could be made without their authorization because payment information is encrypted and tokenized.
However, each consumer’s transaction history, including the purchases they made from the retailer, along with email, billing and shipping addresses, were compromised in the breach.
Barnes & Noble notes in its warning that customers whose email addresses were exposed may receive more spam emails.
“We take the security of our IT systems extremely seriously and regret sincerely that this incident occurred,” Barnes & Noble’s short warning concluded.
The company has not yet disclosed how the breach occurred.
Email Data Breaches Expose More Information in 2020
According to Enterprise Times, there has been an increase in data breaches, particularly breaches linked to outbound emails. In fact, 93% of IT workers surveyed by the publication reported a breach within the last year.
While Infosecurity Magazine reports the volume of data breaches was on the decline in the first part of 2020, the breach events appear to expose more records. In fact, hundreds of millions of consumers have reportedly had some sort of information exposed in 2020.
Indeed, experts told Infosecurity Magazine consumers should be wary when they are told their information was compromised in a breach.
“Whenever someone receives a breach notice, they need to act quickly and decisively because of the risks that some with personal information being exposed,” an internet security expert told Infosecurity Magazine.
Experts attribute part of the rise to coronavirus; as more people work from home, outbound emails are on the rise. Errors stem from outdated email security tools that rely on users to keep information safe from hackers, a white paper on email data breaches concluded.
According to the report, three of the most common causes of breaches linked to email include:
- Adding the wrong email recipient
- Attaching the wrong file to an email
- Replying to a phishing attempt
In addition, the report pointed out that most companies rely on employees to report email data compromise events and that an average of 180 events happen each year, equating to about one every 12 hours.
One major culprit, according to the report, is auto-complete functions in email address bars. At most companies, these bars auto-populate; however, employees may not be aware there could be multiple people with the same or similar names and may inadvertently add them to a confidential email.
Employees also report being tired and stressed, adding to the probability that a mistake will be made.
Combined with work-from-home distractions, such as spouses, distance learning or childcare, the chance a mistake will be made is ever higher, the report notes.
Email breaches are not without consequences.
According to the 2020 data breach report, 46% of employees who reported they caused a breach faced disciplinary action and 27% were fired. In addition, 28% also faced legal action related to the breach.
Are you concerned that your personal information was exposed in the Barnes & Noble data breach? We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think in the comment section below.
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