Australia-based Woolworth mistakenly emailed an Excel spreadsheet unleashing a data breach of 8000 gift cards containing redeemable codes, and customers' names and email addresses. The total gift card worth came to AU$1,308,505.
Customers purchasing the vouchers on the bargain site Groupon discovered the virtual money had already spent by fast thinkers who had received the leaked email. The 7.5% sale on eGifts, valued at $200 and $100, were redeemable at Big W stores, Caltex fuel stations and at Woolworths.
While the data breach unlikely impacted any Americans, it was reminder of how information could fall into the wrong hands.
"Securing your network is one thing. Keeping your files secure outside that network is quite another. Security can follow a file wherever it goes," Gord Boyce, CEO of San Jose-based FinalCode, said. "Woolworth reminds us that protecting yourself from human error is just as important as protecting yourself from hackers and malware." Boyce added FinalCode could have prevented this accidental data leak by remotely deleting the emailed file
The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse's record of public data leak disclosures showed that more than 440,000 records accidentally leaked in 113 incidents in 2014.
Woolworth's supermarket, operated by Australia's largest retail company Woolworths Limited, has no historical connection to the U.S. five-and-dime store pioneer F. W. Woolworth Company. However, Woolworths Limited did take their name from the original company, as it had not been registered or trademarked in Australia at the time.
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