From grocery stores, to banks, and everything in between – November saw it all when it came to breaches. As I mentioned in September, hackers are not picky. Let’s just say, when an opportunity arises, they will swoop right in and overtake your systems and access any data they can get their e-hands on.

Be careful, and keep staying informed – our goal is to make sure no company ends up on this list next month. 

Let’s dive in. 

1. WhatsApp

Whatsapp with this?! The app that we all know, love, and use, WhatsApp, has supposedly fallen victim to a massive data leak. And by massive, I mean nearly 500 million user records have been leaked online. So… what happened? On November 16, 2022, an ad on a well-known hacking community forum was posted by someone claiming to be selling a 2022 database of WhatsApp user mobile numbers. It is also claimed that 32 million users from the United States have been included. Although only phone numbers were leaked, it is important to note that leaked phone numbers are typically used for marketing purposes, phishing, impersonation, and fraud. 

2. Bed Bath & Beyond

Ah, phishing at its finest. While almost anyone who enters Bed Bath & Beyond can get lost for hours browsing, no one likes hearing about breached data. The United States retail giant confirmed that unauthorized access to company data was accessed after an employee was phished. In an 8-K filing to the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission, Bed Bath & Beyond explained that data of the employee’s hard drive and other shared drives that the employee had access to were accessed. The company is still investigating whether the drives have any sensitive or personally identifiable information.

3. DropBox

File hosting service, DropBox, also fell victim to a phishing incident. In a statement from the company, they explained the situation saying “We were recently the target of a phishing campaign that successfully accessed some of the code we store in GitHub. No one’s content, passwords, or payment information was accessed, and the issue was quickly resolved. Our core apps and infrastructure were also unaffected, as access to this code is even more limited and strictly controlled. We believe the risk to customers is minimal. Because we take our commitment to security, privacy, and transparency seriously, we have notified those affected.” The company goes on to explain that on October 14, GitHub alerted them that suspicious behavior was going on. DropBox found that a threat actor was pretending to be CircleCI and was able to access one of DropBox’s GitHub accounts. To date, their investigation has found that the code accessed by the threat actor contained some credentials, primarily, API keys used by Dropbox developers.

4. TransUnion

Isn’t it ironic how an agency who determines your credit score, is the one that could be ruining your credit? There are three main credit bureaus in America – Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Unfortunately, the consumer credit reporting agency, TransUnion, experienced a breach and began notifying individuals about the incident on November 7,2022. The company collects and assembles information on over 1 billion consumers worldwide, 200 million of those being Americans. The type of information that was exposed includes names, social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and account numbers. 

5. AirAsia

AirAsia, the largest airline in Malaysia with approximately 22,000 employees and worldwide operations, has unfortunately fallen victim to a supposed ransomware attack. The group behind this attack is known as the Daixin Ransomware Gang and they have supposedly stolen data of 5 million AirAsia passengers and employees. The Daixin team is known for disrupting operations with ransomware and stealing personally identifiable information. With this data, the cyber threat group threatens to release the stolen information unless a ransom is paid. In a tweet shared by Soufiane Tahiri, screenshots from the group can be seen that were posted on the dark web. The information applies to both employees and passengers. In these documents, information such as date of birth, country of birth, where the person is from, start of employment for employees and their secret question and answer used to secure their accounts could be found. 

6. Sonder

In a company security update, Sonder, a hospitality company, notified the public that they became aware of unauthorized access to one of its systems that included guest records. Information that was accessed includes: 

• Sonder.com username and encrypted password

• Full name, phone number, date of birth, address, and email address

• Certain guest transaction receipts, including the last 4 digits of credit card numbers and transaction amounts

• Dates booked for stays at a Sonder property

• Government issued identification such as driver’s licenses or passports

7. Sobeys

This incident shows that ANY business can get breached. Even a supermarket. Incase you aren’t familiar, Sobeys is one of the two national grocery retailers in Canada. On November 7, 2022, Sobeys’ parent company wrote in a notice that the grocery stores were impacted by an IT systems issue. While the company hasn’t publicly confirmed a cyber attack on its systems, a local media outlet reported that “two provincial privacy watchdogs said they had received data breach reports from Sobeys. Both Quebec’s access to information commission and Alberta’s privacy commission have both been notified by the grocer about a “confidentiality incident.” 

8. Whoosh

Russian scooter sharing company known as Whoosh has confirmed that it too was breached. Hackers started to sell a database containing the details of 7.2 million customers on a hacking forum. Alleged stolen data on the hacking forum allegedly contains promotion codes that would allow someone to access the service for free, as well as partial user identification and payment card data. Included were email addresses, phone numbers, and first names. A russian news outlet, RIA Novosti was told by Whoosh that, “The leak of some of the personal data of customers of the Russian scooter rental service Whoosh at the beginning of November did indeed occur, but did not affect sensitive user data, such as access to accounts, transaction information or travel details” 

9. Coinsquare:

Cryptocurrency is a sexy industry to talk about, but this incident is a little less appealing. To round up the month, a Canadian cryptocurrency exchange, Coinsquare has become the latest victim of a security breach. Data such as customer names, email addresses, residential addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, device IDs, public wallet addresses, transaction history, and account balances were compromised. According to customer reports, Coinsquare allegedly contacted them via email and let them know that it had identified an intrusion and a database containing personal information accessed by an unintended third party. In a Tweet responding to an account sharing about the hack, Coinsquare wrote, “We have no evidence any of this information was viewed by the bad actor, but in an abundance of caution, we wanted to make our users aware. We notified all clients, but only identified 3 clients whose accounts were accessed.” 

Companies can get careless when it comes to securing their systems, their employees, and their customers. And while we are here to help you, the first step begins with you staying informed. Which we see you are since you made it this far! 

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