![]() ![]() The list is long, and you should take the time to read it closely for yourself. Samsung declined to tell TechCrunch what specific data “demographic information” includes, but there are more clues in the company’s separate privacy policy for advertising, which it links to in the data breach notice and explains what demographic information includes. These networks can track users’ online activities over time by collecting information through automated means, including through the use of browser cookies, web beacons, pixels, device identifiers, server logs, and other similar technologies.” privacy policy explains this more explicitly. “Ad networks allow us to target our messaging to users considering demographic data, users’ inferred interests, and browsing context. Samsung says it collects this unspecified demographic information □️ to “help deliver the best experience possible with our products and services” - or another way of saying targeted advertising. Samsung’s data breach notice includes a vague mention of “demographic information” that was stolen by the hackers. But unique identifiers are not fully anonymized and can be combined with other data for targeted advertising or for identifying users or tracking someone’s online activity.ĭemographic data includes precise geolocation data Unique identifiers are designed to be pseudonymous so that in the event of a data breach, these randomized strings of letters and numbers wouldn’t be of much use. Samsung previously told TechCrunch that customers provide information when registering their devices to access “service and support, warranty information, software updates, and exclusive offers for the purchase of future Samsung products.” This data includes the Samsung product model, date of purchase, and the device’s unique identifier, such as an IMEI number for phones and advertising IDs, or serial numbers for other devices like smart TVs. It is less clear what other data was stolen, but the clues are in the privacy policy. Names and dates of birth are personal information. That suggests not every Samsung customer is affected, but it could also mean that Samsung does not yet know how much data was stolen in its data breach. Samsung says in its data breach notice □️ that the hackers “in some cases” took customer names, contact and demographic information, date of birth, and product registration information. This is also Samsung’s second known data breach this year after the Lapsus$ hacking crew stole source code and other confidential internal documents from the company’s systems in March, though no customer information was taken.Ĭustomers’ personal information was stolen The fact that hackers accessed customers’ personal information either shows Samsung did not protect that data as well as it should, or that the hackers had such deep access to Samsung’s network that they were able to access customer data and presumably other highly sensitive files. Samsung is providing the very minimum of what the company has to tell you. ![]() Remember, this is only the initial breach disclosure. In this case, Samsung knows that data was “acquired” □️ - or exfiltrated - by the hackers. ![]() Malicious hackers don’t always steal data it depends on how a company’s systems and network is set up and how far the hackers get. Not all security incidents are created equally. Samsung knows it security incident is a data breach Spokespeople for Samsung, via crisis communications firm Edelman, declined to answer the questions we sent prior to publication, citing the “ongoing nature of our coordination with law enforcement.” What Samsung said in its data breach notice TechCrunch has marked up and annotated Samsung’s data breach notice □️ with our analysis of what it means - and what Samsung leaves out. But Samsung’s poorly explained data breach notice, coupled with its unexplained delay in disclosing the data breach, left customers reading the tea-leaves and without a clear idea of what they can do to protect themselves, if at all. Samsung is one of the largest technology companies with hundreds of millions of device owners - and users - around the world. systems were breached a month earlier by malicious hackers, who broke in and made off with gobs of personal information about an unspecified number of its customers. Hours before a long holiday weekend in the United States, electronics giant Samsung announced its U.S. ![]()
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