Topgolf Callaway Brands hacked, over a million golfers exposed

Over a million customers of Topgolf Callaway Brands, an American sports equipment manufacturing company that operates a chain of golf centers, have had their personal information leaked and will be asked to change passwords.

Topgolf Callaway noticed unusual system activity on its computer network on August 1st.

An investigation into the matter indicated that user profiles, including name, mailing address, email address, phone number, order history, account password, and answers to security questions were affected. Law enforcement was immediately notified.

“Information related to your Callaway, Odyssey, Ogio, or Callaway Golf Preowned user profile was affected during this incident,” the company explained in its notification letter to customers.

In total, the private information of 1,114,954 individuals was compromised. The breach was publicly disclosed to the Maine Attorney General’s office on August 29th – the state imposes rigid reporting requirements on cyberattacks compromising any of its residents, of which 2,219 were affected.

No full payment card numbers and government identification numbers, such as Social Security numbers, were compromised. According to the company, this information is not stored.

It took almost a month to disable the security questions and force-reset user profile passwords. As soon as this action was completed, email notification letters were sent to all involved Maine residents on the same day.

“Thankfully, due to the quick work of our team, we detected this incident early and took steps to contain it. Our customers experienced a temporary outage before our ecommerce services resumed,” the company writes.

Customers will regain access to their accounts after resetting their passwords. It’s strongly recommended that users also change the same passwords used for other websites. Full instructions are provided on the company’s website, and Topgolf Callaway has established a dedicated, toll-free incident response line to answer questions that individuals may have.

“To prevent something like this from happening again, Topgolf Callaway has taken a number of additional steps to further secure its data, including adding protective security layers around its data, improving security protocols that govern access to its systems, and continuing to work with outside experts to enhance the security of its systems,” Topgolf Callaway assured customers in its informative and apologetic letter.

Topgolf Callaway designs, manufactures, markets and sells golf equipment, such as clubs and balls, bags, gloves, caps, and operates a chain of golf-related amusement and events centers.