Kmart Australia Suffers From Privacy Breach

Kmart Australia’s online operations have been hacked in a privacy breach that has exposed customers’ credentials.

The retailer informed the affected customers yesterday that hackers gained access to customers’ names, email addresses, delivery and billing addresses, telephone numbers, and product purchase details.

The retailer is also adamant that no payment details or credit card information have been compromised or accessed during this breach. The company uses ANZ Bank’s CyberSource payments gateway for credit card processing and does not store payment credentials internally.

“Yesterday, an email was sent directly to those customers whose details were accessed to inform them of this situation and Kmart Australia has posted details of the breach on its social media pages,” the retailer reported on its website.

Kmart also notified the Office of Australian Information Commissioner and the federal police of the data breach.

The retailer is currently working with ‘leading IT forensic investigators’ to figure out how the attackers were able to infiltrate the product ordering systems.

Kmart’s United States operations were hacked last year, exposing customers’ credit and debit card credentials, however, it is unlikely that these two breaches are linked.

Although Kmart was able to keep its customers’ payment details safe during this attack, it’s important they implement hardened cyber security controls in order to protect data from future breaches. Also, introducing Breach Detection Solutions into their IT environment would help spot intruders within the systems in the future.

Read more on the Sydney Morning Herald