The parent company of CBS and Paramount, National Amusements, has recently reported a data breach that occurred a year ago, affecting 82,128 individuals. TechCrunch initially covered the incident, which was disclosed in a legal filing with the Attorney General of Maine under the state's 2005 digital privacy law. Despite the company not making public comments about the breach beyond the legal filing, it remains unclear whether the compromised data pertains to customers or exclusively employees.
According to Maine's data breach notification, the hack took place from December 13 to 15, 2022, with 82,128 people impacted, including 64 Maine residents. The notice, filed by National Amusements' senior vice president of human resources, suggests a focus on internal employee data.
The company reportedly began notifying affected customers in writing on December 22, 2023, approximately 372 days after the breach was identified. In a letter to victims, National Amusements stated that it became aware of suspicious network activity on or about December 15, 2022, taking immediate steps to secure its network.
However, an inconsistency arises as the notice from Maine's Attorney General's office lists the "date breach discovered" as August 23, 2023. This indicates that the company may not have been aware of the intrusion until eight months after the incident, contradicting the claim of immediate action.
The legal filing mentions that hackers accessed financial information, including account and credit/debit card numbers in combination with security codes, access codes, passwords, or PINs. National Amusements has committed to providing 12 months of Experian credit monitoring and identity theft services to individuals whose social security numbers were compromised.
Engadget has reached out to National Amusements for confirmation and additional information.
It's important to note that National Amusements, which gained a controlling stake in Paramount and CBS in 2019 through the Viacom-CBS merger, experienced a separate hack from the one disclosed by Paramount in August through Massachusetts' Attorney General's Office. The latter breach was reported to have occurred between May and June 2023.