Herff Jones, the company that provides graduation items and insignia such as class rings and yearbooks to other colleges and universities across the country through Barnes & Noble in BU, reported this week that it was the victim of a cyber attack that compromised thousands of student credit card accounts.
The time comes when BU and other schools complete a historic school year disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. The starting shot for BU 2021 is this weekend.
A number of steps are underway including:
- The independent third-party provider Herff Jones, based in Indianapolis, has the problem investigated by both internal and external security experts.
- The provider is strengthening existing security measures, trying to trace the origins of the hack, mitigating the effects and preventing unauthorized access to payment card information in its systems.
- The payment functions on the Herff Jones website have been temporarily suspended and customers can securely place orders on the Herff Jones core pages without submitting payment information. Herff Jones will fulfill orders to customers with “Bill Me Later” to avoid delays.
- Herff Jones contacts affected customers and their schools and works with Barnes & Noble College.
- A customer service phone line has been established to assist institutional and home customers with this specific problem: 855-0535-1795.
- Law enforcement agencies have been notified and are investigating by Herff Jones.
The hack appears to have surfaced earlier this week when students from the University of Houston, University of Illinois, Towson University, and Purdue University noticed suspicious activity on their credit cards. Several incidents also occurred in BU when some students and parents discovered their credit cards had been compromised after ordering hats and dresses from the Herff Jones website.
“Barnes & Noble College was informed that Herff Jones recently discovered they had been the victim of a cyber attack after receiving reports of possible fraudulent activity on student personal payment card accounts that may have compromised customer information,” it says a statement from Barnes & Noble. Edel says. “We want to assure you that we are taking this situation very seriously and are working closely with Herff Jones to understand exactly what happened and how they are approaching the problem.”
Herff Jones posted the following statement on his website: “We recently became aware of suspicious activity involving certain customers’ payment card information. We immediately opened an investigation and hired a leading cybersecurity company to assess the extent of the incident. We have taken steps to mitigate the potential impact and notified law enforcement agencies. Herff Jones is committed to the privacy and security of its customers and we take this responsibility seriously. During our ongoing investigation, we discovered the theft of payment information from certain customers. “
“We sincerely appreciate the inconvenience and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to students and parents at a time normally reserved for celebrations,” said BU Vice President Peter Smokowski, Emergency Services, on Wednesday, “and we would like to Encourage anyone who has purchased academic regalia through Herff Jones to contact the company at the number listed above for more information. We will continue to work with Barnes & Noble and Herff Jones as their investigation progresses. “
Explore related topics:
source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/bookstore-cyberattack-leaves-bus-and-other-students-credit-card-information-compromised-bu-today/
No comments:
Post a Comment