The breach occurred when an attacker penetrated internet-facing disaster recovery servers and obtained system administrator credentials to deploy ransomware across the network. A total of 20 out of 26 impacted servers were encrypted, exposing personal identification numbers, addresses, partial credit card information, and employee bank details. While the retailer isolated the affected systems, restored operations from clean backups, and ignored a subsequent ransom demand, regulators found that the company had failed to apply crucial security updates and ran obsolete operating systems. Although the firm informed impacted staff members, it declined to notify affected customers because it asse…
Key points
The fine of $178,000 marks the retailer's third data protection enforcement penalty issue…: The fine of $178,000 marks the retailer's third data protection enforcement penalty issued by the commission since January 2019.
A year-long monitoring period yielded no indications that the exposed customer or employe…: A year-long monitoring period yielded no indications that the exposed customer or employee records were extracted or leaked online.
Regulators cited systemic vulnerabilities within the organization, including the continue…: Regulators cited systemic vulnerabilities within the organization, including the continued operation of unsupported platforms such as Windows Server 2008.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
SINGAPORE – Electronics and furniture retailer Courts has been fined $178,000 over a ransomware attack that compromised the personal data of nearly one million people, marking its third breach of data protection obligations since January 2019.
The Sept 2022 attack affected 946,972 people, comprising 941,513 customers and 5,459 current, former and prospective employees, according to a Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) decision dated Aug 11 and published on its website on Oct 26.
Among the most sensitive information affected were employees’ bank account details and information about their creditworthiness. Customer data included names, identification numbers, addresses, phone numbers and, for some, the last four digits of credit card numbers.
The attacker was said to have broken into Courts’ network around Sept 21, 2022, through servers intended to keep its business running if its main systems failed.
Two of these disaster recovery servers were accessible over the internet. Investigations indicated that the attacker scanned for vulnerable network entry points and repeatedly attempted to gain access, before obtaining a system administrator’s login credentials through unknown means.
Connections between the disaster recovery servers…
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