Space technology giant Maxar says hacker stole employees' personal information

Westminster, Colorado-based space technology and satellite company Maxar said it experienced a data security incident that compromised the sensitive personal information of its employees.

 

In a filing with the Office of California’s Attorney General, Maxar said that on October 11, its information security team identified unauthorised activity that involved a threat actor using a Hong Kong-based IP address to access a Maxar system containing certain files with employee personal data.

 

The company immediately launched an investigation and involved external cyber security experts to determine the nature and scope of the incident. It also took actions to prevent further unauthorised access to its internal system.

 

The investigation revealed that the sensitive personal information of its employees was accessed during the incident. The compromised data included employees’ names, home addresses, social security numbers, business contact information, gender, employment status, employee numbers, job title, hire, termination and role start dates, supervisor details, department information and more. As of 2022, the company had over 4,600 employees.

 

Maxar has, however, clarified that the files accessed by the threat actor did not contain any financial information or dates of birth.

 

“We are providing this notification to enable you to take action to protect yourself. In addition, we have notified law enforcement of the incident. As is required under the laws of some states, we note that this notification has not been delayed due to any law enforcement investigation. We are also taking additional actions as required by the laws of the states where residents were affected by this security incident,” it said.

 

Maxar has advised all affected employees to regularly monitor their credit reports, account and benefit statements and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement authorities.

 

It has also offered complimentary identity protection and credit monitoring services to all current employees through IDShield and through IDX to all former employees.