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Dell data breach of allegedly 49 million customers - don't worry, your physical address is not considered "significant"

Wrexis

Wrexis

Member
Nov 4, 2017
21,434
techcrunch.com

Dell discloses data breach of customers' physical addresses | TechCrunch

The technology giant refused to say how many customers are affected by its data breach
techcrunch.com techcrunch.com
www.bleepingcomputer.com

Dell warns of data breach, 49 million customers allegedly affected

Dell is warning customers of a data breach after a threat actor claimed to have stolen information for approximately 49 million customers.
www.bleepingcomputer.com www.bleepingcomputer.com

As first reported by Daily Dark Web, a threat actor named Menelik attempted to sell a Dell database on the Breach Forums hacking forum on April 28th.

The threat actor said they stole data from the computer maker for "49 million customer and other information systems purchased from Dell between 2017-2024."
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Dell states that the following information was accessed by the threat actor during the breach:
  • Name
  • Physical address
  • Dell hardware and order information, including service tag, item description, date of order, and related warranty information
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Got the email 20m ago. We believe there is not a significant risk to our customers given the type of information involved.

I mean sure it's not a credit card leak but since when is your (home) address not considered significant?
 
Lkr

Lkr

Member
Oct 28, 2017
9,678
it's wild to think it's going on 20 years since I bought something from dell
 
CNSBarry

CNSBarry

Member
Oct 27, 2017
263
Well now i don't feel too bad about them shipping me and never charging me for my monitor!
 
Volimar

Volimar

volunteer forum janitor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
39,131
icecream said:
Unfortunately your name and address are already all over the public web and searchable in Google, thanks to scraping companies.
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Used to be you'd get a book of most everyone in your town's phone numbers and physical addresses delivered right to your home.
 
The Albatross

The Albatross

Member
Oct 25, 2017
39,264
Bad PR response, but they're pretty much right. Name and address is public information in most cases, though people who rent or live with others are able to stay under the radar more easily.

Wrexis said:
I mean sure it's not a credit card leak but since when is your (home) address not considered significant?
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Basically the opposite, it's only very recent (last ~5-10 years) that anybody would have mistakenly thought this is privileged information.
 
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Edward

Edward

â–˛ Legend â–˛
Avenger
Oct 30, 2017
5,162
Robochimp said:
For homeowners, your name and address regularly get scraped from public records.
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I searched my name and city once out of curiosity and it not only listed every single address i have ever lived at but it knew everyone related to me, their ages, their phone numbers and their addresses.

And anyone can get access to it. So when i see stuff like this i don't even think twice about it. Now, if peoples banking information got breached as that's how you used to have to pay if you had dell credit it's been a minute since i had it so i don't know if they let you just pay with a ebt/credit now or not but that would be something i would consider both significant and catastrophic
 
Alcoremortis

Alcoremortis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,677
The last Dell I bought was in 2004, though I think I just went to a store and bought it with cash because I didn't have a credit card at the time. I also stopped using the email I used then so that's probably why I didn't get an email.
 
riotous

riotous

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,405
Seattle
I grew up with just about everyone being in the White Pages that was littered all over our neighborhoods every year lol

But glad that stuff is harder to find these days.
 
RadzPrower

RadzPrower

One Winged Slayer
Member
Jan 19, 2018
6,104
Wrexis said:
I mean sure it's not a credit card leak but since when is your (home) address not considered significant?
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It's technically public record for most people and, for the general population, it's not a significant point of data even if it weren't public record.

Exceptions would be those at risk for assorted reasons, but they are relatively rare cases and if it's REALLY serious, they're already probably taking steps to mitigate that information being any more public than it already is.
 
Pillville

Pillville

Member
Oct 25, 2017
397
Ohio
Wrexis said:
I mean sure it's not a credit card leak but since when is your (home) address not considered significant?
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Some of you kids grew up without phone books didn't you?
They used to regularly deliver a free book that contained everyone's name, address, and phone number (unless you specifically told the phone company not to include you).
 
Kenai

Kenai

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,372
Yea...phone books used to be a thing for a while, if it's only name and address that's not actually very much. Still shouldn't happen though....
 
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