Shopify Data Breach

NOTICE: If you made an online purchase from a website supported by Shopify between August 15 and September 15, 2020 and have received a NOTICE OF DATA BREACH, contact the Arnold Law Firm at (916) 777-7777.

On September 22, 2020, e-commerce platform Shopify disclosed a security incident on their blog. Shopify reported that two “rogue” support team employees illegitimately accessed and stole customer transactional records of certain merchants, including Thrive Causemetics and Kylie Cosmetics.

Apparently, the two employees accessed shopper data using Shopify’s Orders API, which lets merchants process orders on behalf of their customers. Shopify did not say how many end customers were affected by the theft of data from merchants, but the emails sent to merchants reportedly contained the specific number of customer records stolen in the breach. One affected merchant claims that more than 4,900 customer records were accessed.

Shopify claims to be notifying affected merchants “as relevant,” but has not yet disclosed a list of those companies. So far, nearly 200 companies have reportedly been notified of their exposure to the data breach.

The unauthorized access reportedly spans from August 15 to September 15, 2020. Shopify claims to have terminated these individuals’ access to their network and has reported the incident to law enforcement.

Compromised customer information may include:

Shopify currently claims that only the last four digits of credit cards were stolen in the security incident. However, online discussions reveal multiple shoppers who received Shopify data breach notices and claim to have suffered fraudulent credit card charges that correspond with the data breach time window.

Even without full financial information, hackers could potentially use such data to launch targeted phishing attacks. So far, Shopify has not offered identity monitoring services to affected individuals.

Unfortunately, this is not Shopify’s first breach of customer payment information. On May 20, 2020, popular startup Bombas learned that malicious code in their Shopify e-commerce platform may have scraped personal information as customers purchased product online. The sock retailer reports that consumer data was exposed during a window from November 11, 2016 to February 16, 2017.

Shopify was originally founded in 2004 as Snowdevil, an online store for snowboarding equipment, which led to the development and launch of the Shopify platform two years later. The Canadian company now employs over 5,000 and claims to be an all-in-one commerce vendor, providing tools for payments, marketing, shipping and customer engagement for over one million businesses worldwide. Shopify’s estimated annual revenues are over 1.5 billion USD.

If you made an online purchase from a website supported by Shopify between August 15 and September 15, 2020 and have received a NOTICE OF DATA BREACH, contact the data breach lawyers at The Arnold Law Firm at (916) 777-7777 to discuss your situation and possible legal options.