Estee Lauder Reports Data Breach — Are Customers’ Information Safe?

Estee Lauder has a data breach.

The popular cosmetics maker recently announced that a hacker managed to compromise its cybersecurity and obtain some data from its systems; investigations are still ongoing.

Estee Lauder is the latest US-listed company to have been hit with a data breach over the past year.

Estee Lauder Data Breach Details

Estee Lauder mentioned in the statement it released that it identified a cybersecurity incident involving an unauthorized third party gaining access to some of its systems sometime on July 18. T

According to the company, it proactively took down some of its systems once it became aware of the incident and began an investigation with the assistance of leading third-party cybersecurity experts. It is also coordinating with law enforcement regarding its own investigations of the data breach.

Based on the investigations' findings as of press time, the hacker managed to obtain some data from its systems, though Estee Lauder didn't specify what kind of data the hacker managed to acquire. The company said it is working to understand "the nature and scope of that data."

As such, it is unknown if the hacker managed to obtain the customer data Estee Lauder stores in its system. The public may have to wait more to know if the hacker has compromised the company's customer data.

Additionally, Estee Lauder did not reveal the identity of the hacker or the hacking entity behind the data breach.

As a result of the data breach, Estee Lauder is implementing measures to secure its business operations and will focus on remediation, including efforts to restore affected systems and services. According to the company, the data breach had caused and is expected to continue to cause, disruption to parts of its business operations.

It is also taking additional steps where it's appropriate to secure its business operations further.

The data breach came to Estee Lauder at a bad time. According to a Reuters report, the company predicted in May that it would see weaker sales and profit in 2023 than previously estimated due to slow recovery at duty-free and travel destinations, especially in Asia.

Estee Lauder did not respond to Reuters' request for further comment outside regular hours.

The Latest In A Hacking Spree

Estee Lauder isn't the only company to have experienced a data breach in the past year, though Estee Lauder is the latest in such a spree. In Sept. 2022, 2K Games confirmed that its help desk platform was hacked and used to target customers with fake support tickets to push malware via embedded links, per Bleeping Computer. This hack follows an earlier data breach that allowed a hacker to obtain data for its upcoming GTA 6 game and leak it to the public, per Sportskeeda.

Uber is also a victim of a data breach over the past year; the company was forced to shut down several internal communications for a week after a hacker managed to breach its cybersecurity and leak the email addresses of over 77,000 Uber employees.