Data breach at Vice Media exposes SSNs, financial info of 1,700 individuals

A data breach at American-Canadian digital media and broadcasting company Vice Media has exposed the sensitive and financial information of more than 1,700 people.

According to two separate filings with Maine’s Attorney General on January 26 and 31, Vice Media revealed that it was alerted of the cyberattack on its network in March 2022.

The company hired a cybersecurity company to investigate the incident, and it was discovered that hackers had successfully gained access to an internal Vice email account. Until January 25, 2023, efforts were made to ascertain what personal information was involved and locate current addresses for every victim. The business declined to explain why it took almost a year to finish this process.

In the January 26 filing, Vice Media revealed that the breach, which affected 1,724 people, involved Social Security numbers. Five days later, the media company disclosed that the breach involved passwords, account PINs, security codes, access codes, credit and debit card numbers, and other personal information.

It’s not clear from the letters whether they refer to various incidents or just one cyberattack. The breach was discovered on April 4, according to the January 26 filing, but the January 31 filing stated that it was discovered on December 19.

In association with Equifax, the company will provide the victims with 12 months of credit, identity monitoring, and identity restoration services. Identity theft insurance worth $1 million is also part of the plan. Victims started receiving the breach notification letters on Monday.