Cortina reminds customers affected by data breach to be alert to scams, phishing attacks

Varun Karthik

Published Mon, Jun 12, 2023 · 08:21 AM
    • Cortina has declined to disclose the number of customers affected by the data breach.
    • Cortina has declined to disclose the number of customers affected by the data breach. PHOTO: BT FILE

    MAINBOARD-LISTED luxury watch retailer Cortina has reminded customers potentially affected by a recent data breach “to be alert to potential scams, phishing attacks or incidences of callers impersonating Cortina representatives”.

    In response to The Business Times’ queries, Cortina again declined to disclose the number of customers affected by the cybersecurity incident and said that not all its customers’ data had been affected. 

    When asked about seemingly unflattering information the hacker had released about the company, it said: “We advise our customers to exercise prudence when reading reports on the case and (they) should only obtain information on the case from reliable official sources such as the SGX (Singapore Exchange) and Cortina.” 

    The Straits Times (ST) reported on Jun 9 that the more than 7 GB of the company’s data uploaded on a file-sharing site included  – other than customer data such as contact information, home addresses and birth dates – the company’s sales tactics and documents that appeared to show how some watches were priced. 

    It said a spreadsheet showed several watch models priced differently for “retail”, “walk in” and “regular” – with one entry listing retail as $48,130, walk in as $75,000, and regular as $73,000.

    The data released also included usernames and passwords for company and staff accounts, which showed  numerous administrator accounts sharing the same password, ST said in its report. 

    Cortina first disclosed the cybersecurity incident in a bourse filing after market trading hours on Jun 6. ST had reported the day before that a hacker, who claimed in a tweet to have stolen 2 GB worth of data from Cortina, appeared to be demanding a ransom from the company. 

    The company’s website continued to be down on Monday morning (Jun 12). 

    The company’s shares ended the week flat at S$3.66 on Friday.

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