Boots halts Advantage Card payments after cyber-attack

guest · Mar 4, 2020

Boots halts Advantage Card payments after cyber-attack
March 4, 2020
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51742079

Customers will not be able to use Boots Advantage Card points to pay for products while the issue is dealt with.

Boots said none of its own systems were compromised, but attackers had tried to access accounts using re-used passwords from other sites.
A spokeswoman for Boots told the BBC the issue affected less than 1% of the company's 14.4 million active Advantage Cards - fewer than 150,000 people.

"We are writing to customers if we believe that their account has been affected, and if their Boots Advantage Card points have been used fraudulently we will, of course, replace them," the company said in a statement.
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The Boots Advantage card lets shoppers collect four points for every £1 spent, and each point is worth a penny. For example, a card with 200 points could be used to pay for an item worth £2.
But the points can also be used when purchasing items online.

Jake Moore, cyber-security specialist at internet security firm Eset, said that Boots reminding their customers about the risk was a good move - but that password reuse is a "gigantic problem" in cyber-security.

"It would be a good idea for people to check they have implemented two factor authentication on each of their accounts as this makes the password stuffing attack that much harder."
"My further advice is to use a password manager to store your uniquely different passwords robustly online so you don't have to remember them all."
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guest · Mar 6, 2020

Boots Advantage card hackers may be behind Tesco Clubcard cyber attack
March 6, 2020
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/boots-advantage-card-hackers-behind-21648152

A cyber attack on 140,000 Boots customers is feared to have been carried out by the same gang who targeted 620,000 Tesco accounts.

Stolen passwords were used to attempt to break into Boots Advantage Card accounts. The High street chemist said none of its systems were compromised in the attack.
But it affected 140,000 of the company's 14.4m Advantage Card holders. Boots halted purchases using points built up on its loyalty cards as a result.

A cyber security expert told the Mirror: "The attack has all the hallmarks of the attack on Tesco. They are using the same methods. It looks like the same group behind each attack."
"These attempts can be successful if people use the same email and password details on multiple accounts. We would like to reassure our customers that these details were not obtained from Boots. We are aware that other organisations may be impacted too.
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