ADT is a popular home security service designed to monitor and protect against intruders Ironically, the company has its own intruder problem Hackers gained access to the company's servers and stole information about ADT's customers The information was posted on a popular hacking forum, unsettling the company and those protected by its services
In a statement to Tom's Guide, an ADP spokesperson described what happened and the type of information stolen: [ADT has determined that an unauthorized individual(s) accessed certain ADT customer information determined that certain customer information was accessed, implemented cybersecurity protocols, raised the alert level, and initiated a forensic investigation of the system
Regarding the stolen data, the representative stated, "We can confirm that no customer home security systems were compromised and no personal, credit card, or banking information was accessed"
This is because if hackers had access to credit card or banking information, the impact could be far greater Still, according to documents the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it appears that customer e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and addresses were stolenADT stated in the filing that the number of affected customers is "a small fraction of the company's overall subscriber base" and that it has "notified those customers that it believes have been affected"
The company did not say how many people were affected Still, TechCrunch reported that a seller on a cybercrime forum claimed to have obtained about 30,000 customer data records from ADT on July 31 While this claim has not yet been confirmed, we have contacted ADT for additional comment on the number of customers
If this number is accurate, it would represent a small fraction of the company's estimated 6 million customers across 200 US locations Of course, that doesn't soften the blow for the 30,000 customers, but the rest can take comfort in knowing that their information is secure
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