Former Trend Micro employee enabled scam calls by stealing customers' personal data

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.cyberscoop.com/trend-micro-customer-data-stolen-scam/

By Shannon Vavra
CYBERSCOOP
November 6, 2019

A former employee of Trend Micro stole the personal data of some customers with
a “clear criminal intent” and then sold it to a third party earlier this year,
the cybersecurity company disclosed Tuesday.

Trend Micro first caught wind of the unauthorized disclosure when several users
of a home security product began receiving unannounced phone calls from people
impersonating Trend Micro support staff. The company says such contact is always
a scam because its support calls are always scheduled in advance.

After investigating, Trend Micro uncovered that an employee, who has since been
fired, had accessed a company customer support database that contained names,
email addresses, support ticket numbers and some telephone numbers. It was not
immediately clear when the employee first gained access to the database,
although consumer data was accessed in August, a Trend Micro spokesperson told
CyberScoop. Trend Micro said it disabled the unauthorized account and law
enforcement has been notified.

Approximately 70,000 consumer customers were affected by the data theft, a Trend
Micro spokesperson told CyberScoop. The spokesperson declined to comment on what
the scammers tried to get during the phone calls given the investigation is
open.

[...]

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