Streaming media company Roku has revealed that more than 15,000 customer accounts were hacked after their login credentials were stolen following an unrelated data breach.
In a data breach notification sent to the attorneys general of Maine and California, Roku said hackers accessed the accounts of 15,363 U.S. residents in a campaign that lasted from December 28, 2023, to February 21, 2024. .
These attacks work because some Roku account owners mistakenly use the same password on Roku as on multiple other websites. This gives those who have been exposed to past data breaches an easy way to break into Roku accounts and target real users.
“After gaining access, they changed the Roku login information for affected individual Roku accounts and in a few cases attempted to purchase streaming subscriptions,” Roku explained.
as Computer beeps According to reports, cybercriminals have been selling access rights for 50 cents per hijacked account.
The hijacked account could then be used to purchase other items from Roku using the stored credit card details.
Roku claims that access to affected Roku accounts would not allow hackers to access Social Security numbers, fully paid account numbers, dates of birth or other similarly sensitive personal information.
The company said it takes the incident “very seriously” and has secured affected accounts from further unauthorized access and forced users to reset their passwords.
Obviously, it’s not a good idea to make the same mistake again – so if you choose a new password, make sure it’s one that’s strong, unguessable and (perhaps most importantly) consistent with the one you use elsewhere on the internet any password.
I can’t help but feel a little sorry for Roku. The attack damaged Roku’s reputation and brand, but it could be argued that Roku users failed to take appropriate security measures.
Credential stuffing attacks are successful because many people still make the mistake of reusing the same password in different places on the web.
Despite warnings, reusing passwords is unsafe – hackers can use a compromised service’s password database to access other accounts.
That’s not to say Roku is blameless. As far as I know, it still doesn’t offer any form of two-factor authentication (2FA) for its users, which is a common way to increase account security. One hopes Roku’s security team catches this unusual behavior sooner rather than letting it persist for months.
Roku said its security team will continue to monitor suspicious activity and urged users to remain vigilant about the threat posed by identity thieves.If users have any questions about this breach, please contact Roku at 1-816-272-8106 or email [email protected].
