Barnes & Noble has suffered a massive cybersecurity attack the day they solved the Nook outage. Barnes & Noble’s data breach exposed its customer’s information that includes email addresses and other personal information.
On Monday, Barnes & Noble sent an email to all its customers, notifying them of the cyberattack. Although customers’ financial information was not exposed, the transaction history was potentially exposed. Transaction history means any purchase information concerning books and other products that the customers may have bought from the bookseller.
Barnes & Noble’s data breach leads to the potential exposure of customers’ personal information
The company stated that customers’ email addresses were potentially exposed, and there was a possibility that they might receive unsolicited emails. It also acknowledged the exposure of customers’ billing and shipping addresses along with phone numbers in the data breach.
In its email to its customers, Barnes & Noble said that it takes the security of its IT systems very seriously and regrets that such an incident has occurred. It further admitted that it is inconvenient and concerning for its customers to receive such email notices.
Customers should be on high alert, says Darren Guccione, CEO, and co-founder of Keeper Security
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Darren Guccione, CEO, and co-founder of Keeper Security, a password management provider, said that the customers of Barnes & Noble should be on high alert. Also, customers whose information might have compromised in this data breach should increase their cybersecurity protections.
Personally identifiable information like users’ addresses, phone numbers, names, and email addresses are of great value on the black market. In case this information is combined with credit card information and social security numbers, hackers can create a complete profile of people. It can be used to steal people’s identities and money.
63% rise in social engineering attacks since the start of the pandemic
The cyberattack has come at a time when the bookstore is shifting to online sales to compete with the likes of Amazon. As per Keeper security, US companies have experienced a 63% rise in the social engineering attacks since the pandemic commenced.
Barnes & Noble, a renowned American bookseller, has its stores located in Bellingham, Worcester, Walpole, Millbury, Framingham, Boston, Braintree, Leominster, Burlington, Saugus, Peabody, Hyannis, Dartmouth, Hingham, Haldey, Pittsfield, and Holyoke.