Breach Brief – Maropost

Published On April 9, 2020 | By Tom Huskerson | Breach Briefs, News and Analysis

Yet another massive database was found open and unprotected online. Owned by Maropost an email delivery and marketing firm its clients include the New York Post, Shopify Inc., Fujifilm Holding Corp., Hard Rock Cafe Inc. Mercedes-Benz, Shop.com, and Mother Jones among others. . According to CyberNews.com the data base contained about 95 million customer records.

Included in the 95 million records were more than 19 million unique email records belonging to about 10,000 clients.

Researchers at CyberNews discovered the unprotected database in early February. Marketing logs containing the relevant metadata for these emails exposed the exact date and time the emails were sent, who sent them and to whom. The database was found a Google Cloud server.

Maropost seemingly ignored attempts by CyberNews researchers to inform the company of the breach for two months. It was not until federal authorities got involved that Maropost acted. CyberNews researchers informed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of the data breach.

Maropost did eventually respond with an email from Chief Executive Officer Ross Andrew Paquette. Paquette claimed the email addresses in the database were randomized data the company used for external testing. Researchers learned differently as their tests showed the emails were real and deliverable.

Like this Article? Share it!

About The Author

Tom Huskerson Bio Born in Richmond Virginia Tom Huskerson is a military veteran who settled in California after his discharge. Tom attended Santa Barbara City College where he began his writing career as a campus reporter. He worked as an intern news reporter for the Santa Barbara News-Press writing feature stories before moving on to San Francisco. At San Francisco State University Tom studied broadcast communications and began to focus on the Internet. He completed his graduate thesis on Internet advertising. Tom was the first student to ever focus on the Internet as a graduate student at San Francisco State University. After graduation he went to work for Zona Research in California’s Silicone Valley. As a research associate Tom supported senior analyst writing on the latest developments in the Internet industry. During the dot com boom Tom worked for several web businesses as a market researcher and analyst. As a writer and researcher Tom has authored various technical works including a training program for Charles Schwab security. Other projects included professional presentations on workplace violence and hiring security contractors. Tom has also written both fiction and non-fiction works and blogging for a travel website. He has published two books of short stories and completed two novels. Tom is the owner of Scribe of Life Literature and EbonyCandle.com. Tom is not the chief editor for the OnTechStreet. com. A news and information blog that focuses on tech news for African-Americans. The blog is the result of his desire to inform the African American community of the dangers and benefits of the cyber age. In his blog Tom reports on information security, new and analysis, scams and hoaxes, legal happenings and various topics that arise from the age of information. Tom believes that technology is a necessary tool for black people and they should know what is happening. Tom writes believing that techno speak is for the professional and that valuable information can be communicated using plain language. As a result he has embraced the motto, Less Tech, More Knowledge.

Comments are closed.