Ace Hardware client data affected by cyberattack

Home improvement retail giant Ace Hardware has reported that its clients’ private data was compromised by cyberattackers.

The notice to affected clients on April 1st stated that the company, on 29th of October, 2023, “discovered a data security incident that impacted certain corporate systems.” Reportedly, among the stolen sensitive data were names and Social Security numbers.

The attack happened between October 27th and 29th, 2023, when an unauthorized actor accessed the retailer’s systems. The company states that the incident has not affected local systems at Ace Hardware stores.

After an investigation, the Illinois-headquartered company claims to have implemented additional technical safeguards to further enhance the security of its data.

Affected individuals were offered free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services for 12 months. The Office of the Maine Attorney General states that 7295 people were affected by the hack.

The data breach announcement is likely to be related to an incident that hit Ace Hardware in October last year. At the time, the company’s services were interrupted by a malicious cyberattack, with reportedly 1,202 devices – including 196 servers – being hit and needed to undergo restoration.

The attack caused all systems to be suspended, including those used to receive customer orders – as well as all customer shipments, which were canceled for October 30th and 31st.

Cybernews has contacted Ace Hardware for a comment but has yet to receive a response.