Staples expose customer data when customers went to review their current and past online orders.
Staples’ order tracking portal allows you to enter your zip code and order number to track your package, but the order numbers are sequential. So starting with a customers’ order number, a hacker could access the route of a package to the city and state, which would give them a shortlist of possible zip codes. Trial and error would do the rest, and the hacker would end up with your name, address, and at least some information about how you paid for the purchase, but not exposing your card information.
Staples has fixed the exposure of customer data and stressing there is no evidence that third parties are accessing any data and no detection of unauthorized purchases to this point.
However, a recent tweet gave the hacking speculations teeth from the threat intelligence company Bad Packets revealing that Staples was slow to patch a number of their Pulse Secure VPN servers, vulnerable to CVE-2019-11510.
Although the company has neither confirmed nor denied the claim made by Bad Packets, the company outlined an all too plausible way that a hacker could have accessed order data, including the order’s shipping address.
In any case, it’s all speculation with a fix to the issue.
Out of an abundance of caution, if you are a Staples customer, keep a watchful eye out on the payment card you use to make purchases from the company, and track your existing orders more closely to ensure you get everything on your order.
