Acer, a Taiwanese computer company, announced they had suffered a data breach where hackers had stolen customers’ sensitive information from the Acer online store. The company then decided to reveal this information in a letter to the California Attorney General about the data breach. The letter stated that 34,000 were affected by the breach and thousands of credit card data, names, and addresses are at risk.

Fortunately for Acer Customers, usernames and manufacturer passwords, as well as Social Security numbers, were not affected by the data breach. Still, Acer has acknowledged the seriousness and will continue to notify all affected customers, most of whom reside in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Acer also informed customers about what the company is doing to fix the situation. For instance; in the letter written to the Attorney General, Acer states this “Safeguarding your personal information is important to us. We took immediate steps to remediate this security issue upon identifying it, and we are being assisted by outside cybersecurity experts.”

Though the breach only affected the online store, all stored credit cards should be regularly monitored for odd spending or any signs of identity theft. In their letter regarding the data breach, Acer stated “We value the trust you place in us. We regret this incident occurred, and we will be working hard to enhance our security.” Furthermore, Acer has reported the breach to various credit card companies and for federal law enforcement, In the meantime, the company also advised all of their online shoppers to review their accounts for any fraudulent charges or anomalies.

Regardless of the merchant’s security on all stored accounts, hackers will always find new ways install credit card stealing malware into their systems. So before submitting any payment information to a web, check consumer reviews to see if the merchant is legit and trusted. It is also important to understand how identity and credit card thieves operate. Having this knowledge (before shopping online) will better protect individuals against credit card fraud and identity left. To learn more about protecting yourself against online identity theft contact Threat Vector by The LCO Group.