Coffee chain Hollys said its membership system was hacked and customer personal information was leaked, the latest in a string of data breaches at South Korean companies.
Hollys confirmed on the 16th that unauthorized external access to its membership system had exposed customer data and posted a notice on its website at about 9:36 p.m. that day, according to the coffee industry on the 19th.
The company urged customers to change their membership account passwords immediately, and to also change passwords on other services where they use the same ID and password. It added that customers should not respond to calls, text messages or emails from unidentified sources or click on links in them, stressing that Hollys does not send links by text message or ask for passwords or financial and payment information.
"We deeply apologize for the concern this incident has caused our customers," the company said, adding that it would do its utmost to protect customer information and minimize damage.
Those affected are customers who signed up for Hollys membership before Feb. 11, 2020. The leaked items include IDs and passwords, names, dates of birth, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses and a resident-verification code (DI) used to prevent duplicate sign-ups. Information related to service use was also included. Hollys reported a leak of about 2.76 million records to the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA).
Hollys' mobile and PC websites were inaccessible for a period the previous day. The company estimated that the data was leaked through external hacking between Sept. 3 and Oct. 7.
Hollys said it has blocked the unauthorized access route, strengthened authentication procedures and stepped up monitoring of abnormal login attempts. It added that it has reported the incident to relevant authorities and is cooperating with their investigation.