It seems like the Atlanta-based email marketing and newsletter service, Mailchimp, is having a hard time keeping its customers’ data secure. The company has once again fallen victim to a security breach that has exposed information of 133 customers. This marks the third breach in less than a year for the company.
Mailchimp reported that the breach occurred due to a social engineering attack on its employees and contractors. The unauthorized actor gained access to select Mailchimp accounts using compromised employee credentials. The company identified the breach on January 11, 2023, and claimed that there is no evidence that the unauthorized party breached Intuit systems or other customer information beyond the 133 accounts.
The primary contacts for all the affected accounts were notified within 24 hours, and the company has since helped users regain access to their accounts. However, Mailchimp did not reveal the exact duration for which the intruder remained on its systems or the specific types of information accessed.
One of the breached accounts, WooCommerce, reported that the incident exposed its users’ names, store URLs, addresses, and email addresses. But, to their relief, no payment data, passwords, or other sensitive information was exposed.
The company has faced two other breaches in the past year, the first of which took place in April 2022, where a malicious actor gained unauthorized access to 319 customer accounts with the intention of conducting crypto phishing scams. The second breach occurred in August 2022, where the company fell for another elaborate social engineering attack by a group known as 0ktapus (also known as Scatter Swine), resulting in the compromise of 216 customer accounts.
It’s high time for Mailchimp to take a closer look at its security protocols and ensure that its customers’ data is not exposed again. The company’s reputation and its customers’ trust are at stake.
