According to a report by the Associated
Press 51 UPS (United Parcel Service) stores in 24 states suffered
security breaches that compromised the personal data of around
100,000 customers over a 7 ½ period. The United States Department of
Homeland Security alerted UPS to this breach on July 31. UPS
immediately hired a security firm to go through their 4.460
franchised stores where it was discovered that just over 1% of the
stores were infected with malware.
All of the malware was purged from the
stores by August 11, 2014. During the clean up it was determined that
the stores were first infected on or around January 20, 2014 where it
was collecting address, credit and debit card information and
customer names. UPS posted a list of all of the stores that were
infected and are encouraging customers that had dealings to contact
them. They offering those customers one year of identity monitoring.
"I understand this type of
incident can be disruptive and cause frustration. I apologize for any
anxiety this may have caused our customers. At The UPS Store the
trust of our customers is of utmost importance," The UPS Store
president Tim Davis said in a statement. "As soon as we
became aware of the potential malware intrusion, we deployed
extensive resources to quickly address and eliminate this issue. Our
customers can be assured that we have identified and fully contained
the incident."
Since the stores are individually
franchised they don't share a common computer system. That keep the
security breach from spreading and becoming an even bigger problem.
Given that the stores are all separate entities also deeps the
mystery of just how stores spread over such a wide area were infected
in the first place.
In 1907 James Casey founded a company
called the American
Messenger Company in Seattle, Washington. In 1913 the
Seattle-based company merged with a rival service forming the
Merchants Parcel and becoming a nation wide company for the first
time. They became the United Parcel Service in 1937. Over the next
few decades UPS moved their headquarters twice as they grew. The
first of those moves was in 1975 when they re-located in Greenwich,
Connecticut. In 1988 UPS moved to Atlanta, Georgia where they reside
today as a global operation.
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