Dick’s Sporting Goods confirms data breach

Dick’s data breach overview: 

• Who: Dick’s Sporting Goods confirmed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last month that it suffered a data breach. 
• Why: The sporting goods retailer says it discovered Aug. 21 that there had been unauthorized third-party access to its information systems, including portions containing “certain confidential information.” 
• Where: Dick’s operates around 800 store locations around the U.S. 

Dick’s Sporting Goods disclosed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that  it suffered a data breach the sporting good retailer says exposed confidential information. 

In a disclosure filed Aug. 28, Dick’s told the SEC it had discovered a week earlier that there had been unauthorized third–party access to its information systems, including portions of its systems that contain “certain confidential information.” 

The company told the SEC it has notified federal law enforcement about the incident, activated its security response plan and engaged with its external cybersecurity experts to “investigate, isolate and contain the threat.” 

“The Company’s investigation of the incident remains ongoing. Based on the Company’s current knowledge of the facts and circumstances related to this incident, the Company believes that this incident is not material,” Dick’s said in its filing. 

Dick’s data breach latest to affect major company

Tech and cybersecurity news website Bleeping Computer, meanwhile, reports an anonymous source informed it that Dick’s has told employees not to speak publicly about the data breach incident. 

Dick’s, according to the Bleeping Computer source, has also shut down its email systems in the wake of the data breach and locked employees out of their accounts. 

The source reportedly added Dick’s IT staff has been manually validating employees’ identities via camera, in order for them to be able to regain access to its internal systems. 

Phone lines at local Dick’s stores have also been shut down in the wake of the data breach, according to Bleeping Computer, which said it received out of service messages when trying to contact more than 20 store locations throughout the U.S. 

The data breach is the latest to affect a major company. Toyota also confirmed a data breach in August that the automaker said exposed the data of customers and employees. 

Toyota confirmed the data breach after a hacker posted on an underground hacking forum that they had stolen files from a U.S. branch of the automaker. 

Are you concerned you may have been affected by the Dick’s data breach? Let us know in the comments.

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