The AP Stylebook is a widely popular guide for grammar enthusiasts, used for a better insight in punctuations and writing styles by journalists, magazines and newsrooms.
About the Breach
The Associate press came up with a warning this week, informing AP Stylebook of their old third-party-managed site (no longer in use) that had apparently been under the hacker’s control between July 16 and July 22, 2023. The breach consequently led to the compromise of 224 customers’ data.
According to their report, the compromised data included customers’ personal information such as:
- Customer’s name
- Email address
- Residential address (street, city, state, zip code)
- Phone number
- User ID
As stated by the AP, initial information regarding the possible breach reached them on July 20, 2023, when AP Stylebook users reported receiving phishing emails requesting that they update their credit card information.
After learning of the phishing attack, the AP disabled their outdated site in order to stop any further attacks.
By the end of July, the company began warning AP Stylebook customers about the phishing attacks, informing them that the fraudulent mails were sent from 'support@getscore.my[.]id' with a subject similar to "Regarding AP Stylebook Order no. 07/20/2023 06:48:20 am."
The Associated Press further advised AP Stylebook customers to reset their passwords upon their next login.
With only 224 customers affected, this was hardly a significant data breach, however hackers who are always on the lookout for journalists' and media businesses' login information, make the breach noteworthy.
Acquiring illicit access to networks belonging to any media organization could consequently result in a variety of cyberattacks like extortion and ransomware attacks, data theft or even cyber espionage.
Some other examples of local or global media organizations that suffered a ransomware or cyberespionage attack includes News Corp, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the German newspaper Heilbronn Stimme.
