Dow Jones & Co. disclosed that hackers had gained unauthorized entry to its systems, accessing contact information for current and former subscribers in order to send fraudulent solicitations.
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American publishing and financial information firm Dow Jones has revealed it was subject to a cyberattack between a three year timespan that resulted in “unauthorized access” of payment card and contact information for up to 3,500 individuals.
“In general it is important to safeguard your personal information”, William Lewis, CEO of Dow Jones, wrote in a letter to customers. The breach also was “likely part of a broader campaign involving a number of other victim companies”, he said.
The breach was reported to Dow Jones by law enforcement and the investigation has determined that between August 2012 and July 2015, “unauthorized access” was made to the company’s systems. The investigation is still ongoing, and Dow Jones is cooperating to their best with the law enforcement, the letter alleged.
It seems the attack was mostly targeted at accessing contact information like names, addresses, email addresses and other similar data. There’s no “direct evidence” yet that customer information was actually stolen and abused, he said. To date, the company notes, it is unaware of any fraud as a result of the data breach.
In response to these massive breaches, the chief executive of Ashley Madison and the owner of Avid Life Media Inc. has walked down and the company informed that it is working together with investigators to identify the hackers.
Target and Home Depot have faced steep expenses related to their data breaches. So far between the Scottrade breach which affected 4.6 million people and the Dow Jones breach nearly 5 million individuals have been touched by this wide-scoped breach attempt.
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For impacted users, Dow Jones is offering free identity protection services to help mitigate any potential risk.
