MacKeeper Exposes Personal Data of 13 Million Users
SAN FRANCISCO (CNET) – The makers of MacKeeper, a suite of software that claims to make Macs more secure and stable, is cleaning up after a breach exposed the personal information for millions of its users.
Kromtech, which makes the software, acknowledged Monday that a hole in its security exposed the usernames, email addresses and other personal information for 13 million customers. The company said it "fixed this error within hours" of its discovery by security researcher Chris Vickery, who first published information about the breach Sunday evening on Reddit.
The Germany-based company said it had no evidence the data was accessed by malicious parties.
"Analysis of our data storage system shows only one individual gained access performed by the security researcher himself," Kromtech said in a statement posted to its website. "We have been in communication with Chris and he has not shared or used the data inappropriately."
The breach marks the latest high-profile compromising of personal data, a list that includes the US government losing the information of 4 million federal workers and health insurer Excellus BlueCross BlueShield seeing 10 million health records exposed. Last year, Home Depot and Target were among the major companies hit by hackers in what has become increasingly dangerous cyberwaters.