The electronics retailer said that it informed customers about the security breach and is pursuing legal action related to the incident, which involved a former business partner.
A month after Best Buy Company, Inc., reported that some customer e-mail addresses were illegally accessed through a marketing partner, the retail giant confirmed Wednesday that another group of e-mail addresses were stolen through a former vendor.
A Best Buy spokeswoman said the company discovered on April 22 that “the e-mail addresses of some Best Buy customers were accessed without authorization,” adding that: “We kept customers informed because we knew it was the right thing to do.”
Last month’s incident involved Irving, Texas-based marketing vendor Epsilon, which sends e-mails for thousands of companies across the United States. Numerous other local companies were also affected by the breach—including U.S. Bancorp and Ameriprise Financial, Inc., both of which are based in Minneapolis.
Richfield-based Best Buy didn’t provide much information about the more recent hacking incident, but the spokeswoman did say that “this is a completely new situation and involves a completely separate vendor.”
The company said that it ended its relationship with the vendor, which it didn’t name, prior to the breach “as part of a strategic business decision unrelated to data security.”
Best Buy is pursuing legal action as a result of the just-announced security breach.
The company said that it continues to work with various companies to execute e-mail marketing. Its primary e-mail service provider is Indianapolis-based ExactTarget. Best Buy said that Exact Target “is widely considered an industry leader in e-mail security” and that “they have been instrumental in helping Best Buy manage recent data security issues.”
About the two breaches, Best Buy said: “We regret these situations have taken place and for any inconvenience that may have been caused.”
Best Buy is Minnesota’s third-largest public company based on revenue, which totaled $49.7 billion for the fiscal year that ended in February 2010. The company reported $50.3 billion in revenue for its most recently completed fiscal year.
—Christa Meland
(cmeland@tcbmag.com)