On January 19, 2023, reports began to surface about a potential Zendesk data breach. While the company has yet to publicly confirm that it was the target of a cyberattack, some of the company’s customers report receiving emails informing them of a data breach. Based on the currently available information, the incident resulted in an unauthorized party gaining access to certain clients’ account information. After confirming that consumer data was leaked, Zendesk began sending out data breach notification emails to all individuals and businesses that were impacted by the recent data security incident.
If you received a data breach email from Zendesk, it is essential you understand what is at risk and what you can do about it. To learn more about how to protect yourself from becoming a victim of fraud or identity theft and what your legal options are in the wake of the Zendesk data breach, please see our recent piece on the topic here.
What We Know So Far About the Zendesk Breach
The available information regarding the Zendesk breach comes from various news sources, several of which contain first-hand accounts of Zendesk customers. According to these sources, on October 25, 2022, Zendesk learned that several of the company’s employees were targeted in an SMS phishing campaign. Evidently, the attack resulted in an unauthorized party obtaining several Zendesk employees’ login credentials.
In response to learning about this incident, Zendesk enlisted the assistance of a cybersecurity firm to assist with the company’s investigation and review of all compromised unstructured data. The investigation confirmed that “unstructured data from a logging platform from September 25, 2022 to October 26, 2022 was accessed.”
Upon discovering that sensitive data was made available to an unauthorized party, Zendesk began to review the affected files to determine what information was compromised and which consumers were impacted. By January 12, 2023, Zendesk had at least partially completed its review of the affected files, notifying some customers that their account service data was compromised.
Subsequently, Zendesk sent out data breach letters to all individuals whose information was compromised as a result of the recent data security incident. As of the time of publishing, Zendesk has not filed official notice of a data breach, and the total number of data breach victims remains unknown. However, the Zendesk breach was only reported a few weeks ago, and additional information may soon become available.
More Information About Zendesk
Founded in 1007, Zendesk is a developer of customer relationship management software based in San Francisco, California. Through its various products, Zendesk helps businesses of all sizes provide a better customer experience. Zendesk currently has approximately 100,000 customers across 160 countries and territories. Zendesk employs more than 6,000 people and generates approximately $1.6 billion in annual revenue.
