Avery Dennison Data Breach: Sticky Situation for Label Giant

Summary

Avery Dennison, a leading label manufacturer, suffered a data breach affecting over 60,000 customers. A credit card skimmer on their website stole personal and payment information for almost five months. The company is offering free credit monitoring to those affected and is investigating the incident.

Protect your data without breaking the bankTrueNAS combines award-winning quality with cost efficiency.

Main Story

Okay, so, Avery Dennison – you know, the folks who make all those labels and office bits – they’ve had a pretty nasty data breach. It’s not great news, honestly, and it really highlights some of the issues we’re all dealing with these days. Seems like over 60,000 of their customers had their personal and financial info exposed, which is, well, a lot.

So how’d this happen? Well, it turns out, there was a credit card skimmer stealthily slipped onto their website way back in July. Can you believe that? July! It sat there, quietly hoovering up data like a sneaky little vacuum cleaner, all the way until it was discovered on December 9th. And what kind of data, you ask? Pretty much everything you’d want to keep private: names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers… all the usual suspects plus credit card details, CVV codes, expiry dates, and even how much you’d spent. I mean, ouch.

The discovery, it turns out, was linked to a ransomware attack that they spotted around the same time, December 9th. Initially, they thought the data breach was part of that ransomware thing, however, after some digging, they found the skimmer was the culprit. The investigation is still underway, but it seems like this skimmer was the primary way data got out the door. Thankfully though, no SSNs, drivers license numbers, or dates of birth were taken, so that’s a small win at least.

And here’s where things get a bit tricky. At first, Avery Dennison didn’t see evidence of any fraudulent activity. That said, customers have since reported unauthorized charges and phishing attempts – meaning, that stolen data? It’s likely doing the rounds. As a result, Avery Dennison is offering affected customers 12 months of credit monitoring services, they are also really pushing people to stay on top of their financial accounts, and keep an eye out for anything suspicious.

This whole situation is a glaring reminder of how sophisticated and persistent cybercriminals have become. They’re getting craftier, aren’t they? These card skimmers are often injected by exploiting vulnerabilities in websites – it’s not always some big, obvious hacking incident. They work quietly in the background, practically invisible to anyone just browsing the site. The fact this skimmer managed to lurk on Avery Dennison’s site for five months is, frankly, alarming, and it really underlines just how tough it is for businesses to spot and deal with this kind of threat quickly.

This isn’t just an Avery Dennison problem, it’s a wake up call for all businesses. Robust cybersecurity practices aren’t optional anymore, they’re essential. And what does that mean? Well regular security checks, keeping software up to date and multi-layered security measures are key, these things help minimise the chances of a breach like this. And for us, you know, the everyday consumer, it means being extra diligent – regularly checking bank statements and credit card accounts, using strong passwords (and not reusing them across sites, that’s a bad habit) and just being really careful about those weird emails or links you get. You know the ones, they seem slightly off.

I think, inevitably, Avery Dennison will be beefing up their security. It’s one of those things that has to be done. On our end, we’ve got to be even more alert online, especially when we’re making those online purchases. It’s an ongoing battle, for sure, and you can never be too cautious. This whole mess just highlights that even established brands are vulnerable and staying vigilant is crucial to protect our data.