Dell confirms it is investigating a data breach after employee information was leaked
Computer manufacturer Dell is investigating claims that the company’s infrastructure was breached and confidential data belonging to thousands of employees was stolen.
Late last week, a threat actor going by the alias ‘grep’ posted a new thread on the infamous dark web forum BreachForums, offering a large Dell database for sale, reportedly containing sensitive employee information.
“In September 2024, Dell suffered a small data breach that exposed internal employee data,” the thread reads. “Over 10,800 employees of Dell and its partners were impacted. Compromised data: Employee ID, Employee Full Name, Employee Status, Internal Employee ID.”
No news from Capgemini yet
If the database turns out to be legitimate, this could be a major problem for Dell, as the information could be used for identity theft and phishing, potentially putting Dell at even greater risk. Fraudsters could pose as company employees to communicate with other employees and trick them into revealing secrets, granting access to restricted parts of the infrastructure, or even deploying ransomware.
To make matters worse, the database is quite easy to obtain. A small sample is available for free, and the entire database can be purchased for 1 BreachForums credit (around $0.30).
Now Dell said BleepingComputer that it is investigating the infringement allegations.
“We are aware of the allegations and our security team is currently investigating,” the company told the publication.
Earlier this month, grep claimed to have hacked French tech and consulting giant Capgemini. They said they had obtained 20GB of sensitive data, including databases, source code, private keys, credentials, API keys, projects, employee data (including names, email addresses, usernames, and password hashes). The archive also contained backups and internal configuration data from Capgemini cloud infrastructure clients.
The crook even shared alleged T-Mobile virtual machine logs. But a representative for T-Mobile US debunked the claim, saying the data does not belong to that company. “This is not T-Mobile US,” they told us. “From what we can tell, we believe this may be a T-Mobile brand outside of the US.”
Via BleepingComputer