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Dell required Dell.com customers to reset their passwords after detecting an attempted unauthorized extraction of customer information on November 9, 2018. Dell said the information at risk included names, email addresses and hashed passwords, but its investigation found no conclusive evidence that any information was extracted. The reset was a precaution—not confirmation that customer passwords had been stolen.
What happened in November 2018?
Dell announced the incident on November 28, 2018. The company said it had detected and disrupted unauthorized activity on November 9 that was attempting to extract customer information from Dell.com. Dell described its response in a press release hosted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and furnished the announcement in an SEC Form 8-K.
Dell’s release said: “Though it is possible some of this information was removed from Dell’s network, our investigations found no conclusive evidence that any was extracted.” That wording leaves uncertainty: Dell did not confirm that data was taken, but it also did not establish that none left its network.
What information was involved?
According to Dell, the activity targeted customer names, email addresses and hashed passwords. Dell said it had hashed customers’ passwords, but its announcement did not identify the hashing method. Hashing alone is not enough to conclude that passwords were harmless or impossible to recover.
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Dell said credit-card and other sensitive customer information were not targeted, and that the incident did not affect Dell products or services. These are the company’s statements about the incident’s scope.
Why did Dell force a password reset?
Dell said its countermeasures included a mandatory Dell.com password reset. The company described the step as part of its response to the attempted extraction; the reset does not, by itself, show that passwords were stolen. Dell also said it began an investigation, retained an independent digital forensics firm and engaged law enforcement.
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What should affected customers do?
Dell advised customers to change the password on any other account where they had reused their Dell.com password. That is important because a password exposed in one service can put other accounts at risk when people reuse it.
- Change any reused password on the other account, using a different password for each service.
- If you cannot access your Dell.com account, use Dell’s current account-recovery process rather than links in an unexpected message.
Is this the same as Dell’s 2024 data incident?
No. The May 2024 incident was separate from the 2018 password-reset event. TechCrunch reported that the later matter involved a Dell portal and information including customer names, physical addresses and hardware or order details such as service tags, item descriptions, order dates and warranty information. That report said Dell stated that email addresses, telephone numbers and payment information were not included in the 2024 incident. TechCrunch later reported that Ireland’s Data Protection Commission had received a notification and that the matter was under assessment. Those later reports do not change what Dell disclosed about the 2018 event.
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Sources on the separate 2024 incident: TechCrunch, May 9, 2024; TechCrunch, May 16, 2024.
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