Samsung admits data breach that affected customers in US

SAN FRANCISCO: Samsung on Friday said it suffered a data breach that may have exposed some customers' personal information in the US.

The South Korean giant said that it has taken actions to secure the affected systems, and have engaged a leading outside cybersecurity firm and are coordinating with law enforcement.

Samsung said the data breach did not impact social security numbers or credit and debit card numbers, but in some cases, "may have affected information such as name, contact and demographic information, date of birth, and product registration information".

"We recently discovered a cybersecurity incident that affected some customer information. In late July 2022, an unauthorised third party acquired information from some of Samsung's US systems," the company said in a statement.

"On or around August 4, 2022, we determined through our ongoing investigation that personal information of certain customers was affected," it added.

According to the company, the information affected for each relevant customer may vary, and it was notifying customers to make them aware of this matter.

"By working with industry-leading experts, we will further enhance the security of our systems - and our customers' personal information - and work to maintain the trust our customers have put into the Samsung brand for more than 40 years," said the tech giant.

It's not immediately clear how many customers are affected.

This is the second time Samsung has confirmed a data breach this year.

Data extortion entity Lapsus$ had claimed that it hacked the system of the South Korean tech giant and leaked up to 190 gigabytes of its data and source code online.

The hackers also claimed they uploaded the leaked data for download via torrent.