Forrester, one of the world’s most influential market research and advisory firms, informed customers late on Friday that its main website had been breached.
According to Forrester Chief Business Technology Officer Steven Peltzman, a hacker accessed information provided to customers through the company’s website, Forrester.com, using stolen credentials.
The organization said the attacker managed to steal research reports made available to customers, but believes no confidential client data, financial information, or employee data has been compromised.
Forrester said the attack was detected while it was being carried out and the company took immediate action to limit its impact. The investigation is ongoing, but there is no evidence to date that the hacker stole anything other than research intellectual property.
Law enforcement has been notified and the firm is further strengthening its internal security processes and systems in response to the incident.
“We recognize that hackers will attack attractive targets — in this case, our research IP. We also understand there is a tradeoff between making it easy for our clients to access our research and security measures,” said George F. Colony, chairman and CEO of Forrester. “We feel that we have taken a common-sense approach to those two priorities; however, we will continuously look at that balance to respond to changing cybersecurity risk.”
Forrester disclosed the breach on Friday after the market closed so the potential impact of the incident on the company’s shares has yet to be seen.
A major cybersecurity incident can have a significant impact on a company’s stock. The breach suffered recently by consumer credit reporting agency Equifax, which affected more than 140 million individuals, led to the company losing roughly $10 billion in market value within a few days of the hacker attack coming to light.
Related: Equifax Cybersecurity Failings Revealed Following Breach
Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
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