Dell's company website was targeted in a hack that tried to steal customer data, the PC maker reported on Wednesday. Fortunately, no payment card data appears to have been stolen.
The PC maker said on Nov. 9 it had "detected and disrupted" an intrusion into the company's network that was attempting to extract customer information from Dell.com. Specifically, the anonymous attackers were after names, email addresses, and hashed passwords for user accounts.
"Though it is possible some of this information was removed from Dell's network, our investigations found no conclusive evidence that any was extracted," the company said in a statement.
Nevertheless, the company has issued a password reset for affected customers. Dell has also hired a security firm and contacted law enforcement to help it investigate the attempted hack.
So far, the company hasn't said how many customers were affected or how the intrusion occurred. But to protect the password information, Dell used what's called hashing, a computer algorithm that can scramble the data, making it unreadable to human eyes.
Despite the password hashing, the PC maker is still telling customers to be cautious. "We encourage you to change passwords for your other accounts if you used the same password on your Dell.com account," it said.
The company hasn't explained what hashing algorithm was used to protect the password data; it merely claims the algorithm was "tested and validated" by an expert third-party firm. However, older hashing algorithms can be cracked.
In addition to Dell.com, the attempted hack may have also affected accounts on support.dell.com, premierdell.com, DellEMC.com and DellTechnologies.com.
You can find more information about the security incident in a FAQ Dell has posted for customers.
How Your Password Was Stolen
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