Dell Network Breached In Attempt To Extract Customer Information
Dell disclosed Wednesday that it had detected and disrupted unauthorized activity on its network attempting to extract customer information from Dell.com.
The Round Rock, Texas-based company said it is possible that some names, email addresses and hashed passwords were removed from Dell's network, although no conclusive evidence exists that any information was actually extracted. Dell said that it hashes all Dell.com customer account passwords— scrambling them into an unreadable format—before storing them on the company's database.
Account information for Dell.com and DellPremier.com customers was potentially extracted, according to the company, with DellEMC.com and DellTechnologies.com customer account information not involved. All Dell.com, Premier, Global Portal and support.dell.com accounts were subject to a mandatory password reset, according to the company.
[Related: Facebook ‘Sorry’ After Massive Breach Affecting Up To 50 Million Accounts]
Dell said the incident did not impact any of the company's product or services, and that credit card and other sensitive customer information wasn't targeted. In addition, cybersecurity measures are in place to limit the impact of any potential exposure, according to the company.
Upon detection of the attempted extraction, Dell said that it immediately implemented countermeasures and initiated an investigation. The company indicated it has also retained a digital forensics firm to conduct an independent investigation and has engaged law enforcement.
Dell Technologies stock is up 15 cents, or 0.14 percent, to $106.75 in after-hours trading Wednesday. The company announced the cybersecurity incident after the market closed.
The disclosure comes just two months after Facebook indicated that hackers had exploited a vulnerability in the social media giant's code to potentially take over nearly 50 million people's accounts. The issues stemmed from a change Facebook made to its video uploading feature in July 2017.