Today, Dell notified its customers that the company has suffered a massive data breach. Roughly 49 million customers will be affected.
As this is a fresh, ongoing development, there's a lot of information yet to be disclosed. However, we have enough of a foundation to warn readers about what's currently at risk in this breach.
Per TechCrunch (and an alarming number of social media users), the following "limited types of customer information" have been compromised. Names, Physical Addresses, and Dell hardware and order information, including service tag, item description, date of order, and related warranty information.
Dell compromised. pic.twitter.com/GF5e5UwRg8
— Jon Gorenflo ??? (@flakpaket) May 9, 2024
According to Dell, the compromised data in question did not include telephone numbers, email addresses, financial information, or "any highly sensitive customer information." Dell says the incident involved a "Dell portal, which contains a database with limited types of customer information related to purchases from Dell."
Wait, What?: Dell's Messaging Regarding The Data Breach
You hear that, folks? Your physical address isn't too big of a risk! There's no way having that circling on the dark web and in the potential hands of malicious hackers could majorly backfire.
This isn't a situation to make light of or openly mock. It's terrifying when a major company experiences a misfortune where money, privacy, and peace of mind are on the line. It's horrible for the company, and that goes double for the company's clientele. However, if there's anything that can be readily controlled in the aftermath of such a travesty, it's what you tell people when making them aware of the situation.
It's true most of us are online — chronically, in some cases. When it comes to the internet, convenience is the price, and privacy is oftentimes the devastating cost. I don't want to speak for anyone, but I can tell you I certainly have accepted those terms.
Still, that's no reason to trivialize exactly what's being sacrificed here. There are family members I'd be uncomfortable knowing that they had my full address. It may be too late to put the PR genie back in the lamp now. But Dell seriously needs to consider choosing its words more carefully as it navigates the ongoing investigation of this data breach.
