Card-Scraping Malware Compromised AeroGrow Customer Payment Data

Ecommerce company AeroGrow International is the latest high-profile breach after its buy page was infected with credit card scraping malware for more than four months, AeroGrow announced in a letter to its customers and to the California Office of the Attorney General. The malicious code was probably injected by manipulating a vulnerability in the buy page or shopping cart.

Customers who bought AeroGarden home gardening kits through the shopping cart on the company’s website between October 29, 2018 and March 4, 2019 may have been affected, and could fall victim to future fraud attempts. During this timeframe, hackers stole credit card numbers, expiration dates and security codes, which could make it very easy to commit fraud. Customers should immediately review account activity to ensure there’s no suspicious activity.

AeroGrow has assured customers that the malicious code did not compromise critical personal information such as Social Security numbers, personal identification numbers (PIN), driver’s license numbers or financial account information.

The number of affected customers was not made public. The company is collaborating with law enforcement to investigate the security incident, and determine how it happened and how to keep consequences at a minimum.

AeroGrow will offer one year of free credit monitoring and has taken extra steps to boost security. However, since this is the company’s second credit card breach, they should have already implemented a more efficient security system. According to SecurityWeek, AeroGrow suffered another payment card breach in 2015 when malware  lurked in its network for over six months and stole information such as names, addresses, payment card numbers, expiration dates and verification codes.