Technology is making vast strikes every single day, making a better world for everyone in it. However, like two sides of a coin, the same technology can be leveraged to do some pretty serious damage. The recent announcement by Houzz, the home décor/improvement company, who was one among the first to embrace AR, has revealed that their data was breached in December of 2018.
The breach caused the hacker to get their hands of certain details of Houzz users like User IDs, locations, Facebook Ids, one-way encrypted passwords, and IP addresses. Like all breaches, hackers first require a point of entry to enter the system. It is safe to say that the point of entry was in their AR framework.
Houzz has issued an investigation on the same to know more about how the breach happened and who all are behind this scheme. They let out a recent statement about the event, “Houzz recently learned that a file containing some of our user data was obtained by an unauthorized third party. The security of user data is our priority. We immediately launched an investigation and engaged with a leading forensics firm to assist in our investigation, containment, and remediation efforts. We have also notified law enforcement authorities.”
Houzz has requested users to reset the user passwords for preventing any further damage.
Not Much Is Known About the Hacker or The Date When the Breach Happened…
Sensitive data like financial or payment information, social security numbers, credit card numbers of the customers are not in the list of details that were compromised in the breach. However, the seriousness of this event cannot be undermined one bit.
Houzz is a company that embraces technology. The same mindset prompted them to be one among the early adopters of AR technology. The same was implemented through their app that lets the user place virtual furniture around their home through the app.
As technology is getting more personal than ever before, a vast amount of data is being generated through mediums like apps and user login screen. So companies, especially the ones vested in technologies must put cybersecurity in their list of top priorities. Events like these may deter customers from approaching the brand again. fortunately for Houzz, financial details of the users weren’t compromised in the breach, then again, this is a wakeup call for all companies out there!
