Have I Been Pwned warns that an alleged data breach compromised the private data of 56,904,909 Hot Topic, Box Lunch, and Torrid users. Hot Topic is an American retail franchise that specialises in counterculture-themed clothes, accessories, and licensed music merchandise.
The firm has approximately 640 stores in the United States and Canada, mostly in shopping malls, with a large customer base.
According to HIBP, the exposed information includes full names, email addresses, birth dates, phone numbers, physical addresses, transaction history, and partial credit card data for Hot Topic, Box Lunch, and Torrid users.
On October 21, 2024, a threat actor known as "Satanic" claimed responsibility for the security incident on BreachForum. The threat actor claims to have siphoned 350 million user records from Hot Topic and its subsidiaries, Box Lunch and Torrid.
"Satanic" attempted to sell the database for $20,000 while also demanding a $100,000 ransom from Hot Topic to remove the ad from the forums. According to a HudsonRock report published on October 23, the intrusion could be the result of an information stealer malware infection that acquired credentials for Hot Topic's data unification service.
While Hot Topic has stayed silent, and no notifications have been issued to potentially impacted users, data analytics firm Atlas Privacy revealed last week that the 730GB database impacts 54 million users. Atlas further highlighted that the collection contains 25 million credit card numbers encrypted with a poor cypher that can be easily broken by current computers.
Although Atlas is not positive that the database belongs to Hot Topic, it did note that approximately half of all email addresses had not been seen in previous breaches, adding to the authenticity of the threat actor's claims. According to Altas, the hack appears to have occurred on October 19, with data ranging from 2011 until that date.
The company has set up a website where Hot Topic consumers can see if their email address or phone number was compromised in the data breach. Meanwhile, the threat actor continues to offer the database, albeit for a lower cost of $4,000. Potentially impacted Hot Topic consumers should be wary of phishing attacks, keep track of their financial accounts for strange activity, and change their passwords on all platforms where they use the same credentials.