Barnes & Noble Emails Customers About Potential Security Issue
Are you more cautious than ever before about where you shop online and what information that retailers have about you? Your shopping habits? Your financial info? Another retailer with box stores and online stores, is taking steps to let customers know that their shopping info might have been compromised.
The retailer this time around is Barnes & Noble. In an email sent this week, the retailer informs customers that the company was made aware of a cyber attack on their systems. While the company does not believe that any details regarding the financial aspect of your purchases they do believe that some of your person information might have been compromised.
The BN email goes on to say that the company is informing customers at this time because of "an abundance of caution." The pieces of information that were potentially accessed, have value, like your email address as well as your billing or physical address, as these items can be sold, which would (or potentially) put you on mailing lists or spam email lists.
Here are additional details, from the BN email:
- 1. Have my payment details been exposed?
No, your payment details have not been exposed. Barnes & Noble uses technology that encrypts all credit cards and at no time is there any unencrypted payment information in any Barnes & Noble system. - 2. Could a transaction be made without my authorization?
No, no financial information was accessible. It is always encrypted and tokenized. - 3. Was my email compromised?
No. Your email was not compromised as a result of this attack. However, it is possible that your email address was exposed and, as a result, you may receive unsolicited emails. - 4. Was any personal information exposed due to the attack?
While we do not know if any personal information was exposed as a result of the attack, we do retain in the impacted systems your billing and shipping addresses, your email address and your telephone number if you have supplied these. - 5. Do you retain any other information in the impacted systems?
Yes, we also retain your transaction history, meaning purchase information related to the books and other products that you have bought from us.
Should you have further questions email Barnes & Noble directly at service@bn.com.