Dive Brief:
- A software coding error left the personal information of Wal-Mart online pharmacy customers exposed between Feb.15 to 18, the company said Wednesday.
- The data included prescription history and other basic information for approximately 5,000 U.S. pharmacy customers.
- Wal-Mart emphasized that the information was exposed because of a "coding error" and was not the result of a hack.
Dive Insight:
The incident highlights the fact that hackers are not the only threat to cybersecurity. Data can also be lost through internal errors. A report released earlier this week by Gemalto found that accidental loss or exposure of data records is the second most common reason behind data breach incidents.
Company spokesman Dan Toporek said the error happened during a 72-hour period when servers were being migrated. The error happened during a 72-hour period when servers were being migrated and the company quickly moved to resolve the issue.
Social Security numbers, full credit or debit card or health insurance information could not be viewed during the incident, the company said. Instead, the exposed data was likely limited to customer names, addresses, dates of birth and prescription history. When two users logged in at the same time, the users might have been able to see each other's information.
