Headlines

Retail Jewelry Giant’s Customer Data Was Exposed in Leak

The problem has since been fixed.

Published

5 years ago

December 5, 2018

INSTORE Staff

Order information for customers of some Signet brands may have been exposed in a leak, KrebsOnSecurity reports.

A customer reported the security weakness to the security-focused publication. The customer, Brandon Sheehy of Dallas, “discovered that slightly modifying the link in the confirmation email he received and pasting that into a Web browser revealed another customer’s order.” That included a variety of personal information, including name, address and last four digits of credit card.

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“My first thought was they could track a package of jewelry to someone’s door and swipe it off their doorstep,” Sheehy told KrebsOnSecurity. A variety of other scams might be possible with the information, he surmised.

Sheehy said he contacted Signet, whose brands include Jared, Kay and Zales, about the problem. It was then apparently fixed for all orders going forward, but not for past orders.

Scott Lancaster, chief information security officer or Signet, said the problem has now been fixed for past orders as well.

The issue “affected only orders made online through jared.com and kay.com” and not the company’s other brands, KrebsOnSecurity reports.

Read more at KrebsOnSecurity

When There’s No Succession Plan, Call Wilkerson

Bob Wesley, owner of Robert C. Wesley Jewelers in Scottsdale, Ariz., was a third-generation jeweler. When it was time to enjoy life on the other side of the counter, he weighed his options. His lease was nearing renewal time and with no succession plan, he decided it was time to call Wilkerson. There was plenty of inventory to sell and at first, says Wesley, he thought he might try to manage a sale himself. But he’s glad he didn’t. “There’s no way I could have done this as well as Wilkerson,” he says. Wilkerson took responsibility for the entire event, with every detail — from advertising to accounting — done, dusted and managed by the Wilkerson team. “It’s the complete package,” he says of the Wilkerson method of helping jewelers to easily go on to the next phase of their lives. “There’s no way any retailer can duplicate what they’ve done.”