New York Attorney General Letitia James secured $300,000 from Sports Warehouse for failing to protect 2.5 million consumers’ personal data.
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Sports Warehouse, which owns the online sporting goods websites Tennis Warehouse, Running Warehouse, Skate Warehouse, and Tackle Warehouse, had poor data security that left it vulnerable to a data breach in 2021 which compromised consumers’ private information, including credit card information and email addresses for more than 136,000 New Yorkers.
As a result of this agreement, Sports Warehouse must pay $300,000 in penalties to the state and strengthen their cybersecurity measures to protect consumers’ private information.
“Sports Warehouse ran its companies without the adequate gear to protect online shoppers from cyberattacks, and today they are paying the price for compromising consumers’ digital privacy,” said Attorney General James.
“When we buy tennis shoes or gym clothes online, we don’t expect thieves to run off with our credit card details or other personal information. New Yorkers deserve the peace of mind that their private information is secure, and we’ll continue to go after companies that violate this right and ensure they improve their data security practices.”
In 2021, an attacker gained access to Sports Warehouse’s subsidiary servers, apparently by attempting to identify login credentials through repeated trial and error.
After gaining access to the companies’ servers, the attacker created several web shells to gain remote access to the Sports Warehouse companies’ commerce server, which contained payment card information for nearly every purchase made through their websites since 2002.
The investigation by the Sports Warehouse companies found that the attacker had also accessed certain customers’ email addresses and passwords.
In total, the attackers potentially accessed the non-expired payment card information of as many as 1,813,224 consumers, including 101,558 New Yorkers, and the login credentials of 1,180,939 consumers, including 82,757 New Yorkers.
The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) determined that the Sports Warehouse companies failed to adopt reasonable practices to protect consumers’ personal information. In particular, OAG found that Sports Warehouse companies failed to encrypt consumers’ private information on its servers and adopt appropriate data deletion practices.
As a result of the agreement, the Sports Warehouse companies must pay the state $300,000 in penalties and adopt measures to better protect the personal information of consumers. ■