There’s an update to the PNI Digital Media breach that affected the online photo centers for major retailers such as CVS, Costco, Walmart, RiteAid, Sam’s Club. The breach was first disclosed over the summer, but now AP reports that investigators for CVS have not only confirmed the hack, but some customers’ information may have been stolen:
Staples Inc., the parent company of Canada-based PNI Digital Media, which manages all of the sites, says it appears that the hackers used malware to capture user information on PNI servers.
But it says that there’s no sign that hackers accessed user photos or pin numbers.
Boston Globe correspondent Taryn Luna reports that the breach of CVSPhoto.com:
included credit-card information for some customers, as well as names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, usernames, and passwords.
CVS is offering affected customers credit-monitoring and identity theft restoration services with Experian.
Curiously, perhaps, Sam’s Club reports that their customers’ credit card information was not compromised – but they seem to be relying on statements by PNI Digital Media, and it’s not clear whether they brought in their own investigators. Walmart Canada’s photo center remains offline with their original statement that they have no indication that credit card information is compromised. For its part, RiteAid’s photo center remains offline with its statement of July 17:
We recently were advised by PNI Digital Media, the third party that manages and hosts mywayphotos.riteaid.com, that it is investigating a possible compromise of certain online and mobile photo account customer data. The data that may have been affected is name, address, phone number, email address, photo account password and credit card information.
Costco’s photo center, which is back online, has this statement in their FAQ on the incident:
Q: Was my credit card information taken?
A: The investigation is not complete. At this point, we believe that the credit card information of a small percentage of Costco members was captured. We recommend checking with your bank card company.
So it seems that only CVS (so far) has issued a strong statement confirming the compromise of customer data, and they appear to be the only one offering their customers credit monitoring services.
Update: CVS’s report to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office can be found here. From their investigation, it appears that about 2,500 New Hampshire residents had paid online and either had photos mailed to them or paid online and then picked up the photos at a CVS retail store. The total number of customers nationwide was not disclosed in this report.