TuneCore, an online music distribution/record label service on Friday, revealed that its database was breached by the hackers and they have been working with security experts and federal authorities for tracking down the criminals.
TuneCore is the latest in the list of high-profile attacks that has been carried out in recent times. Already hackers have breached into the server of Sony pictures, Home depot, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and U.S. State Department, now TuneCore joins the list.
According to company’s officials, no music files were stolen in the breach rather only personal data of the customers is breached that includes their names, mailing addresses, account numbers and passwords.
Financial information of the customers is never stored in full by the company only the bank account number, billing addresses and the security digits written on the back side of the credit cards is saved, claims the company.
A former director of NSA in March accused Chinese hackers of all the major attacks, he said:
“Chinese hackers Have penetrated every major corporation of any consequence in the United States. ”
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On their official blog the company stated that:
“TuneCore is working closely with federal law enforcement investigators. At this time, no individual person or entity has been identified as the attacker.”
But, only accusing Chinese hackers will not do the job as there are a number of breaches carried out recently and just accusing hackers from a certain region is not good enough.
According to a survey carried out in 2014, 18 percent of the internet users have faced an account breach and 21 percent have lost personal information meaning 1 of every 5 users has been a part of the data breach. This fact really confirms how vulnerable databases are these days.
TuneCore has asked its users to change their passwords and also keep an eye over their bank statement and credit card transactions and if they find any unusual activity report it to the authorities.
Though, music and entertainment have been the least targeted by the attackers. Most notable hacks from the industry are Sony pictures and Entertainment. Both of the attacks were high profile and Sony corp. had to pay high in terms of damages.
In the 2011 PlayStation attack, 77 million account holders faced the data breach and the company had to incur damages of $172 million due to the breach.
In 2012, hackers stole Michael Jackson’s recordings after breaching Sony Music website.
In 2014, Anonymous leaked credit cards details of 13,000 VPNCyberGhost, UbiSoft, VCC, Brazzers, UFC TV, PSN, Xbox Live Gamers, Twitch TV, Amazon, Hulu Plus, Dell, Walmart and (EA) Games.
Then in 2014 again, hackers broke into Sony picture’s server and the company believed North Korean hackers were behind the attack. Sony pictures in protest to the attacks dropped one of the North Korean films “The interview” from the theaters. Later on hacker leaked 30,000 emails in relation to company’s internal workings including salary, personal information of Sony Group’ executives and employees.
On January 22, 2015, an Israeli hacker hacked into the computers of pop stars including Madonna and sold their unreleased songs online however he was arrested later on.
It’s time for the music industry to spend some bucks on the security of their servers or don’t cry over spilled milk.
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