The Children's Place Hit with E-Mail Database Breach

The Children's Place Retail Stores Inc. announced its customer e-mail database was recently hacked by an unauthorized third party. The children's specialty apparel retailer, which operates 995 stores across the country, sent a notification letter to customers after an unauthorized e-mail that redirected readers to a site requesting credit card information was sent out to consumers.

 

"This e-mail did not come from The Children's Place and does not resemble the e-mails you normally receive from us," said The Children's Place officials in the notification. "We are continuing to investigate this incident and apologize for any inconvenience."

 

The hacker reportedly sent out an e-mail to The Children's Place customers that attempts to phish sensitive information from customers. According to The Children's Place, the e-mail appears to have come from Adobe and directs customers to a website where they are asked to enter their credit card number in order to update software.

 

The database is stored at external e-mail service provider CheetahMail, who confirmed that only e-mail addresses were accessed and no other personal information was obtained. The company also said The Children's Place was the only customer affected by the breach, unlike the major security breach experienced by e-mail service provider Epsilon recently that affected many major retailers including Best Buy, Walgreens and Kroger.