A hacker claims Dell suffered a “minor” breach, exposing over 10,000 employee records. The incident raises cybersecurity concerns amid ongoing threats targeting businesses by tricking employees into phishing and phone call scams.
A hacker using the alias “grep” claims that the technology giant Dell has experienced a “minor” data breach, resulting in the theft of over ten thousand (10,863) employee records.
This information was revealed by the hacker on the notorious hacker and cybercrime platform Breach Forums, where the allegedly stolen data was leaked earlier today, September 19, 2024. The hacker also claims that the breach occurred earlier this month.
The Hackread.com research team managed to analyze the data, which revealed the leak contained the following information:
- Full names
- Employee ID: A unique identifier for the employee.
- Employee Active Status: Indicates whether the employee is currently active
- Employee DNO: This may represent a department number or another internal identifier.
- Internal Employee ID: A unique internal identifier that seems to be a hashed or encoded value.
There are only two email addresses associated with the @Dell.com domain. However, the good news is that there are no plain text passwords or other personally identifiable information (PII) included.
The bad news is that the leaked information still presents a major cybersecurity threat to Dell. Here’s how:
Recently, cybercriminals and state-backed hackers have been targeting businesses and organizations through their employees. A notable attack was uncovered by cybersecurity firm GuidePoint, which affected over 130 U.S. organizations across various industries. The campaign employed social engineering tactics, with threat actors posing as IT support staff to call employees and trick them into revealing their VPN credentials.
Dell’s alleged “minor” breach could provide threat actors with additional details about the company’s employees, making them more susceptible to phishing attempts or phone scams, as mentioned above.
Dell told Hackread.com that it is aware of the claims and is currently investigating.
Wouldn’t be the first time for Dell
This is not the first time Dell has made headlines for cybersecurity-related issues. In May 2024, the Round Rock, Texas-based company disclosed a data breach after another hacker on a breach forum attempted to sell 49 million alleged customer records.
Although the company did not disclose the exact number of affected customers at that time, the compromised data included full names, physical addresses, Dell hardware and order information, including service tags, item descriptions, order dates, and related warranty information.
Stephen Kowski, Field CTO at Pleasanton, Calif.-based SlashNext Email Security+ weighed in stating “The alleged Dell data breach serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing cybersecurity challenges faced by large corporations. With over 10,000 employee records reportedly exposed, including names, employee IDs, and internal identifiers, this incident highlights the potential vulnerabilities in even well-established tech companies.”
“While Dell has not yet confirmed the breach, the leaked information could be leveraged by threat actors for targeted phishing attempts or social engineering attacks, particularly given recent trends in cybercriminal tactics,” Stephen warned.
“Organizations must implement robust security measures, including advanced threat detection systems and regular security audits, to protect sensitive employee data and maintain trust. Timely incident response and transparent communication with affected individuals are also essential in mitigating the potential fallout from such breaches,” he advised.
This article will be updated accordingly. Stay tuned!
