AeroGrow suffered a payment card data breach

The developer, marketer, direct-seller, and wholesaler of indoor garden systems, AeroGrow International, suffered a payment card data breach.

AeroGrow International, a developer, marketer, direct-seller, and wholesaler of indoor garden systems, recently notified customers of a payment card data breach. The incident impacted the company website.

“On March 4, 2019, AeroGrow learned that an unauthorized person may have acquired, through the use of malicious code, the payment card information that users entered into the eCommerce vendor’s payment page.” reads the data breach notification letter sent to the affected customers. “Upon learning of the incident, we immediately removed the malicious code and secured the website.”

The letter was also sent to the California Office of the Attorney General. AeroGrow discovered that attackers injected a software skimmer into the website’s payment page, the malicious code remained undetected between October 29, 2018, and March 4, 2019.

The software skimmer was able to syphon card number, expiration date, and CVV/CCV code provided by customers during the payment process.

Social security numbers, card PINs or other financial account information were not exposed because the company don’t collect them.

The company announced it has taken steps to secure its systems, it will offer one year of free identity protection services to impacted individuals through Experian.

“AeroGrow takes seriously both the security of your payment card information and this incident. We have informed law enforcement and will cooperate with their investigation. We have not delayed notifying you at the request of law enforcement.” continues the letter.

“In addition, we have taken the appropriate steps to limit the likelihood of a recurrence, and we have engaged a third-party expert to conduct a thorough review of our security protocols. Out of an abundance of caution, AeroGrow is offering you one year of identity protection services at no cost to you through Experian, one of the three nationwide credit bureaus.”

AeroGrow has reported another payment card breach back in 2015, also in that case attackers used a software skimmer to steal card data.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – AeroGrow, payment card 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”.