Poor Showing from Ster Kinekor as customer details leaked

12 Apr

If you want to learn a hard lesson about poor data security, all you need to do is book yourself a few movie tickets online at Ster Kinekor! Okay, things seem to have changed, but if you have made use of their old website for online bookings, now is the time to go and change your password!

For all of Ster Kinekor’s recent advocating of online bookings, they certainly haven’t made a great impression as thousands of customers discovered that their details had been leaked from the old booking site. The site was replaced in 2016, but prior to this, it would seem that more than 6.7 million member’s details had been leaked. The flaw in the system was exposed by a South African developer who took the initiative to get in touch with Ster Kinekor and let them know about it.

The leak was one that made it possible for anyone to quickly and easily get the telephone numbers, address, password and personal name details of any Ster Kinekor registered members. What came as an even bigger surprise was how the company had been handling their online passwords. Customer passwords were being stored on their database in plain text (not encrypted) and being returned to the customer as such. This is a massive security risk!

Secure and encrypted data storage is an absolute must in this day and age, particularly when sensitive personal particulars of customers are being handled.

What did Ster Kinekor do about it?

While it seems as though Ster Kinekor rectified the problem by shifting their back-end point of sale system to a more secure setup, some say that the shift was already taking place with the flaw in their system still undetected. That being said, at least the problem has been resolved.

The company responded to the public community assuring users that their data had not been accessed or exposed once the flaw was uncovered, and once the new site and system had been put into operation. It is however, a good idea to change your password if you currently make use of the Ster Kinekor online booking system.

Have you experienced a similar breach or flaw with any of your online service providers? Let us know about it!

 

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