Hackers breached Norton Password Manager in early December, according to Gen Digital, the parent company for Norton, AVG, Avast, and other well-known cybersecurity products. This came after the attacker purchased username and password pairs on the dark web.
Norton Password Manager is a tool that stores users’ passwords in a vault for protection and quick access. However, Norton is warning its customers through data breach notifications that hackers may have obtained the private information stored in their vaults through credential stuffing attacks.
“Norton has intrusion detection systems in place to protect our customers and their data,” Norton said in its notification to customers who were affected. “These systems alerted us that an unauthorized third party likely has knowledge of the email and password you have been using with your Norton account (login.norton.com) and your Norton Password Manager. We recommend you change your passwords with us and elsewhere immediately.”
A credential stuffing attack is when a threat actor obtains your username and password from one website and attempts to use them on other websites — oftentimes trying to steal from unsuspecting victims. Since many people reuse passwords, these can be devastating and are one reason why you should always use different account information on different websites.
According to Norton LifeLock, “In accessing your account with your username and password, the unauthorized third party may have viewed your first name, last name, phone number, and mailing address.” This means that depending on what you have saved in your vault, this breach could compromise your digital assets, personal secrets, and more.
After Norton concluded its internal investigation, it reset the password of accounts that were affected by the breach as well as implemented additional security measures to stop the hackers. In addition, they encourage users to enable two-factor authentication as an extra layer of protection.
It’s also recommended for anyone affected by the beach to also change the passwords of all the accounts they have stored in Norton Password Manager and avoid using duplicate passwords.
Norton LifeLock assured customers that its systems weren’t compromised and is continuing to notify users of accounts if their account was breached.