More data breaches as Dell Technologies not too long ago announced a cyberattack affecting around 49 million customer records. The breach, discovered in late April, involved a partner portal where the attacker accessed customer information by posing as a reseller.
Details on the breach have been revealed and, on April 28, a hacker known as “Menelik” posted on a dark web forum about the breach, offering the stolen data for sale. Menelik revealed that he registered multiple fake companies on Dell’s partner portal to gain access. The hacker claimed it was easy. Once inside, he used a program to generate service tags and scrape data from the portal at a rate of 5,000 requests per minute over three weeks.
The stolen data included customer names, physical addresses, Dell hardware details, order information, service tags, item descriptions, order dates, and warranty information. Dell has assured customers that no financial data, email addresses, or phone numbers were compromised.
How Did Dell Respond?
Dell began sending notification emails to affected customers on May 9. The emails brought up that even though the incident was serious, the risk to customers was limited due to the nature of the data involved. “We believe there is not a high risk to our customers given the type of information involved,” Dell stated in their email.
Though, cybersecurity experts disagree. According to the Daily Dark Web, the stolen information can still be used for phishing attacks. “Scammers in possession of this data could use it to craft convincing phishing attacks,” the Daily Dark Web reported. These targeted phishing attempts could trick users into providing more sensitive information or clicking malicious links.
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What Was Compromised?
The compromised data is extensive, involving detailed order information. The 10 models with the most stolen data were:
Monitors: 22,406,133
Inspiron Notebooks: 11,257,567
Optiplex: 5,177,626
Latitude Laptops: 4,130,510
Inspiron Desktops: 1,731,767
XPS Notebooks: 1,045,302
Precision Desktops: 798,018
Precision Notebooks: 486,244
PowerEdge: 783,575
Alienware Notebooks: 447,315
What Happens, Security Wise, And What Should Customers Do?
Menelik claimed to have contacted Dell on April 12 and 14 to report the vulnerability. Despite these warnings, the data scraping continued until Dell patched the issue two weeks later. Dell stated that they were aware of the breach and had begun containment efforts before receiving Menelik’s emails.
Whether you own a startup, or even a student, it is important for users to take extra steps to make sure devices are protected at all times. This is what you can do:
Check Constantly for Phishing Attempts: Be cautious of any emails or communications claiming to be from Dell or related services.
Update Security Measures & Strategies: Change passwords and consider adding multi-factor authentication to accounts.
Stay Informed: Keep an eye out for further communications from Dell and updates on the investigation.
