Early Settler: Australian furniture store investigating claims customer information compromised in hack

A popular Australian furniture store is investigating claims that it has been hacked and that confidential customer information has been compromised. In an email to customers, Early Settler CEO Craig McKeown said the news was “concerning” and wanted to assure them they were treating the investigation as a priority. It’s understood the potential hack stems from claims that surfaced online suggesting that names, phone numbers, email addresses, delivery addresses and customers’ dates of birth had been compromised. However, Mr McKeown said he wanted to assure customers that “there is no suggestion that any payment details are involved, and we do not hold credit/bank card details for our customers”. “From our investigation to date, we believe the impacted customer information subject to unauthorised access originated from an archived database from July 2022. Any customer information collected after this date would not be affected,” McKeown said. “Additionally, from our review of the archived database, we can confirm it contains some customers’ month of birth for promotional purposes and dates of birth for a very small number of customers who we have notified separately. “We can confirm that the dataset did not include your date of birth. “We apologise for any concern that this news may cause and would like to assure you that there is no suggestion that any broader Early Settler systems or information is involved.” McKeown said his team is working to fix the situation as quickly as possible. “While our investigation is ongoing, we recommend that our customers remain vigilant against the risk of potential phishing emails or scam calls, which are often the most likely risk associated with unauthorised access to contact information,” he said. “We have also notified the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) of the incident.” Consumer Protection WA has been contacted for comment.