Walgreens’ Customer Email List Falls into the Hands of Hackers

A recent incident has resulted in the email addresses of some Walgreens customers who receive special offers and newsletters from the company to fall into the hands of cybercrimals.

As a result, customers were spammed with email messages asking them visit another site (hosted by a cybercriminal) and enter personal data.

The company emphasized that only email addresses were obtained and that no personally identifiably information was collected as a result of the unauthorized access, as such data is not contained in the email system, and no access was gained to Walgreens consumer data systems.

A spokesperson from Walgreens said that company has voluntarily contacted the appropriate authorities and are working with them regarding the incident.

The company declined to comment on the number of email addresses that may have been obtained. The company has not responded as of publishing time on if the email data was hosted internally or with a third party email services provider.

The official statement provided to SecurityWeek from Walgreens is as follows:

“We recently became aware of unauthorized access to an email list of customers who receive special offers and newsletters from us. Customer passwords, account information, prescription and any other personally identifiable information were not at risk because such data is not contained in the email system, and no access was gained to Walgreens consumer data systems. Although only email addresses were obtained, we believe it is important to inform our customers that, as a result, they may have received spam email messages asking them to go to another website and enter personal data.”

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