Carhartt Data Breach Exposes Information From 12.9 Million Accounts

The ShinyHunters extortion group claimed responsibility for the incident on August 13. The group alleged that it stole more than 50GB of customer, employee and internal corporate information.

It later published an archive of the alleged data after Carhartt reportedly refused to pay a $3.3 million ransom demand.

Carhartt has not confirmed the claims or publicly commented on the reported breach.

Researchers link archive to 12.9 million accounts

Have I Been Pwned founder Troy Hunt reviewed the leaked archive and linked the Carhartt data breach to the company’s Databricks analytics platform.

The analysis identified more than 12.9 million affected Carhartt accounts. The exposed data reportedly includes names, email addresses, phone numbers and physical addresses.

Hunt also found more than 15,000 records using Carhartt employee email addresses. However, the archive contained millions of synthetic records that did not appear to relate to real people. Those entries were excluded from the final breach count.

Retailer faces questions over customer data exposure

Carhartt, founded in 1889, is a major US workwear and streetwear retailer. The company operates manufacturing facilities in Kentucky and Tennessee and employs more than 3,000 people across the United States and Europe.

The alleged incident raises concerns for customers whose contact details may appear in the leaked data. Exposed personal information can support phishing, identity fraud and other targeted scams.

People who hold or previously held a Carhartt account should remain alert for unexpected emails, messages or calls that request personal or financial information.

ShinyHunters continues major data theft campaigns

ShinyHunters has claimed responsibility for several large-scale breaches during the past year. The group has linked itself to attacks involving Snowflake customers, third-party integration providers and Salesforce-related campaigns.

It has also claimed recent attacks against organisations affected by Oracle PeopleSoft data theft incidents.

The Carhartt data breach remains unconfirmed by the company. However, the analysis of the published archive indicates that millions of real customer records may be involved.