Hollys reports about 2.76 million customer records exposed in cloud breach
In short
Coffee chain Hollys said about 2.76 million customer records were exposed in a breach of a cloud service used for membership information. The company said the leaked material was a temporary file prepared for an earlier membership service overhaul and urged customers to change their passwords.
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Coffee chain Hollys reported about 2.76 million exposed customer records to the Korea Internet & Security Agency after discovering unauthorized access to a cloud service used for membership information. In an October 19 statement, the company said an outside attacker appeared to have accessed the service for cryptocurrency mining, with some customer information leaking in the process. [ 16 , 19 ]
The estimate includes duplicate membership records and is believed to cover customer data accumulated from 2009 to February 11, 2020. Hollys said the leaked material was a temporary data file provided for a past overhaul of its membership service, rather than the customer database currently in use. Newsis reported that the exact scale of the leak was still being checked. [ 16 , 19 ]
The exposed fields include user IDs, passwords, names, dates of birth, telephone numbers, addresses, email addresses, duplicate-registration identification information and service-use information. The company estimates the leak occurred between September 3 and October 7. It said it confirmed the breach on October 16, and Yonhap reported that a notice appeared on its website at about 9:36 p.m. that day. [ 10 , 16 ]
Hollys said it blocked the unauthorized access route, strengthened authentication and increased monitoring of abnormal login attempts. It reported the incident to the relevant agencies and began an internal investigation into the circumstances. The company also said it would review access permissions, authentication and security systems, and promptly stop the membership service using the affected cloud service while implementing improvements. [ 16 ]
Customers were urged to change their Hollys membership passwords and passwords on other services using the same credentials. The company advised against responding to unidentified calls, texts or emails or opening their links. Hollys said it does not send links by text or request passwords or financial and payment information, and apologized for the concern caused to customers. [ 10 , 16 ]
Why it matters
The exposed information includes passwords, home addresses and phone numbers. Hollys advised customers to change passwords on other services where they use the same credentials and to avoid responding to messages from unidentified sources.
Key facts
- Hollys reported about 2.76 million exposed records to the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA). [ 16 , 19 , 27 ]
- The estimate includes duplicate membership records accumulated from 2009 to February 11, 2020. [ 16 , 19 , 30 ]
- The company estimates the leak occurred between September 3 and October 7 and said it discovered it on October 16. [ 16 , 27 ]
- Hollys said the exposed data came from a temporary file prepared for a membership service overhaul rather than its active customer database. [ 16 , 19 , 28 ]
Confirmed by several sources
Still unclear
- The final number of exposed records and distinct affected customers. Newsis says the exact scale is still being checked; the estimate of 2.76 million includes duplicate membership records.
- Whether the leaked information has been misused. Earlier reports said this had not been disclosed, and the company said it would continue checking for secondary harm.