Best Buy Customer Info Might Have Been Exposed

• Best Buy informs their customers' data might have been exposed in a data breach incident.
• [24]7.ai - a tech firm which provides chat services to customers on Best Buy suffered a data breach back in September last year, and this is when the customer info would have leaked.
• Current investigation reveals only a 'small fraction' of Best Buy users might have been compromised in the incident. 

Customer security breaches have become one of the most trending news highlights of recent time. Every week, we find a new company or website which compromised their customer’s information; this time it is Best Buy.

Just a day ago Sears, Kmart, and Delta confirmed nearly thousands of their customers might have suffered from a data breach which happened at [24]7.ai - a tech firm which provided chat services that customers of these services use on their phones and computers. And now, Best Buy reveals that they too are in the same boat.

The companies have revealed that sensitive customer information including personal and financial data might have leaked during the incident. It so happens that [24]7.ai had suffered a several-days-long data breach in between September 27th and October 12th of 2017. The tech firm informed about this mishap just last month and cited that customer payment information might have been exposed.

Now, while the other companies have remorsefully pointed out that thousands of their users might have been affected, Best Buy is more optimistic and stated only a “small fraction” of users became victims of the data breach. According to Best Buy’s statement, “since we were notified by [24]7.ai, we have been working to determine the extent to which Best Buy online customers’ information was affected, [...] We have done that in collaboration with our third-party vendor and have notified law enforcement. As best we can tell, only a small fraction of our overall online customer population could have been caught up in this [24]7.ai incident, whether or not they used the chat function.”

Image Courtesy of TeachPrivacy

Judging by the statement, it can only be concluded that the investigation is currently in its preliminary stages. Furthermore, even if a “small fraction” of users were affected, considering Best Buy’s enormous user base, that will still be a huge and significant number.

As of now, the only solace provided to customers is that they won’t be charged for any fraudulent purchases, and a free credit monitoring service will be made available if desired.