What! Data of 200,000 Starbucks Customers Compromised?!

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Starbucks Data Breach Affects 200,000 Singapore Customers

According to Singapore's "Lianhe Zaobao," approximately 200,000 Starbucks customers in Singapore have had their data compromised. Since September 10th, customer information has been being sold on online forums, with one batch containing personal customer data reportedly sold for 3,500 Singapore dollars. It is currently unclear how many additional sets of personal information have been purchased.

Affected customers received email notifications from Starbucks on September 16th, informing them that their personal information had been compromised. In the email, Starbucks stated: "According to our security data practices, Starbucks Singapore does not store customer credit card information. Please be assured that customers' credit card information will not be affected."

Starbucks indicated that it has taken additional measures to protect customer information and added that all stored value, rewards, and points for Starbucks Rewards members remain intact.

A Starbucks Singapore spokesperson confirmed to "Lianhe Zaobao" that the company learned of the customer personal data breach on September 13th. These customers were all registered e-commerce customers with Starbucks who had previously completed transactions through the Starbucks app or online store.

The spokesperson stated: "After receiving the notification, we immediately took necessary measures to protect customer personal data, have sent email notifications to affected customers, and are currently fully cooperating with the investigation."

Previous Security Vulnerabilities

According to online records, a key from Starbucks' backend system was previously exposed on GitHub, allowing attackers to access internal systems and modify authorized user lists. The severity level of this vulnerability was set to Critical, as the key could allow attackers to access Starbucks' API (Application Programming Interface).

A "cybersecurity researcher" named Kumar discovered and reported this vulnerability. In addition to telling Starbucks which GitHub repository contained the file with the key, Kumar also provided relevant code demonstrating what damage attackers could do using this key.

Three weeks after the report, Starbucks responded, stating: "The vulnerability involved 'substantial sensitive information,' and the reporter received a $4,000 bounty. The repository has been deleted, and the key has been replaced." This can be considered the highest reward for a major Starbucks vulnerability, as generally, Starbucks vulnerability bounties range between $250 to $375.

The Growing Challenge of Data Security

Today's society is developing at an increasingly rapid pace, with the digital age aligning with social development trends. With the advent of the cloud era, big data has also attracted increasing attention. According to available data, many large-scale data breach security incidents have occurred in recent years, with personal information of nearly hundreds of millions of people being compromised, resulting in incalculable economic losses.

Businesses have consistently implemented various protective measures on their products, including security locks, smart cards, fingerprint recognition, file encryption, and more.

In reality, we all know that these protective measures can only prevent data theft to a certain extent and cannot provide 100% protection. For determined thieves, these measures still cannot stop their various malicious attempts. The cause of this Starbucks data breach is still awaiting official response.

The Starbucks spokesperson emphasized that Starbucks takes the security of customer personal information very seriously and will continue to spare no effort in protecting customer personal data. When contacted, a spokesperson for the Personal Data Protection Commission confirmed that authorities are investigating the incident and have contacted Starbucks for more details.

Image source: Internet

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