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Dell says hackers may have stolen customer info

Dell says hackers may have stolen customer info

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Dell Chromebook 13

Dell has released a customer update on its website acknowledging that it warded off a possible hack that happened earlier this month on November 9th.

In the update, Dell says it noticed and took action to intervene in “unauthorized activity” on its network. The hackers tried to extract customer names, email addresses, and hashed passwords, although it’s not clear how successful the effort was. (Credit card information was not impacted.) The customer update says it found no proof that any information was compromised, but a separate press release by Dell on its website about the incident words it a little differently, saying, “Though it is possible some of this information was removed from Dell’s network, our investigations found no conclusive evidence that any was extracted.”

After noticing the activity, Dell hired a digital forensics firm, involved the authorities, and took the precautionary measure of resetting all Dell.com customer passwords. It is also recommending that if your Dell password is the same or similar to what you use on other websites, then you should change it with those services as well.

Dell would not say how many accounts were affected, telling CNET, “Since this is a voluntary disclosure, and there is no conclusive evidence that customer account information was extracted, it would be imprudent to publish potential numbers when there may be none.”