PayPal-owned company TIO Networks data breach affects 1.6 million customers

PayPal confirmed that one of the companies it owns, TIO Networks, suffered a security breach, that affected 1.6 million customers.

PayPal confirmed that one of the companies it owns, TIO Networks, suffered a security breach, hackers have accessed servers that stored information for 1.6 million customers.

The company TIO Networks was recently acquired by PayPal for $238 million, it is a Canadian firm that runs a network of over 60,000 utility and bills payment kiosks across North America.

On November 10, PayPal suspended the operations of TIO’s network due to the discovery of “security vulnerabilities” affecting the TIO platform and issues with TIO’s data security programme that does not follow PayPal’s security standards.

“While we apologise for any inconvenience this suspension of services may cause, the security of TIO’s systems and the protection of TIO’s customers are our highest priorities.” said TIO Networks.

“We are working with the appropriate authorities to safeguard TIO customers.”

“The PayPal platform is not impacted by this situation in any way and PayPal’s customers’ data remains secure.

“Our investigation is ongoing. We will communicate with TIO customers and merchant partners directly as soon as we have more details. Customer updates will also be posted at www.tio.com.”

The Canadian firm disclosed the data breach, but did not provide any other details.

On Friday, December 1, PayPal published a press release that includes more details on the hack.

“PayPal Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: PYPL) today announced an update on the suspension of operations of TIO Networks (TIO), a publicly traded payment processor PayPal acquired in July 2017. A review of TIO’s network has identified a potential compromise of personally identifiable information for approximately 1.6 million customers.” reads the press release.

“The PayPal platform is not impacted in any way, as the TIO systems are completely separate from the PayPal network, and PayPal’s customers’ data remains secure.”

TIO systems are completely separate from the PayPal network, this means that PayPal’s customers’ data were not affected by the incident.

PayPal confirmed that the attackers stole the personal information of both TIO customers and customers of TIO billers, but it avoided to disclose what type of information the hackers compromised.

Likely attackers accessed personally-identifiable information (PII) and financial details.

PayPal is notifying affected customers of the data breach and is offering free credit monitoring memberships.

The customers of TIO Networks can visit the TIO Networks website for more information on the data breach.

“TIO has also begun working with the companies it services to notify potentially affected individuals, and PayPal is working with a consumer credit reporting agency to provide free credit monitoring memberships. Individuals who are affected will be contacted directly and receive instructions to sign up for monitoring.” continue the Press Release.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – TIO Networks, data breach)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.