Samsung confirms data breach, personal customer data stolen

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Samsung has confirmed it suffered a data breach which led to the personal information of customers being leaked online.

The company revealed in a blog post that customer data had been compromised on August 4, following an apparent security incident in the preceding weeks.

It added that an “unauthorized third party" had acquired information from some of Samsung’s US systems, including names, contact information, dates of birth and product registration details. However, no credit card numbers or social security numbers were breached.

Samsung data breach

“The information affected for each relevant customer may vary. We are notifying customers to make them aware of this matter,” Samsung said in its statement.

The company added that it had "taken actions" to secure the affected systems, and has "engaged a leading outside cybersecurity firm and are coordinating with law enforcement".

There was no precise information on exactly how many customers were affected, with news of the breach occuring on the US Labor Day holiday weekend, but Samsung said it is contacting affected customers now, reassuring users that, "there is no immediate action necessary for any of Samsung’s platforms."

It did recommend that users avoid clicking on any links or attachments in unexpected or suspicious emails, and to take care when dealing with any communications asking for their personal information.

It added that consumer devices were not affected, so Samsung devices can be used as usual.

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"We are committed to protecting the security and privacy of our customers," the company said. "We have engaged leading cybersecurity experts and are coordinating with law enforcement. We will continue to work diligently to develop and implement immediate and longer-term next steps to further enhance the security across our systems."

The news is the latest in a series of incidents affecting Samsung, which has proved a popular target for hackers and criminals in recent months.

In April 2022, the company confirmed it had been hit by the Lapsus$ cybercrime gang, which published a 190GB data dump of intel allegedly belonging to the company, including a host of confidential and valuable technical data.

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Mike Moore is Deputy Editor at TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a B2B and B2C tech journalist for nearly a decade, including at one of the UK's leading national newspapers and fellow Future title ITProPortal, and when he's not keeping track of all the latest enterprise and workplace trends, can most likely be found watching, following or taking part in some kind of sport.