back to article What the Dell? Customer passwords reset after miscreants break into Big Mike's IT emporium

Dell is resetting all customer passwords on its website after a hacker or hackers unknown infiltrated its internal network. Big Mike's server and PC biz says that the move is a precautionary measure after someone broke in and tried to get into a database containing customer names, email addresses, and hashed passwords, in what …

  1. EnviableOne

    World Class Security

    so DellEMC subsiduary RSA says it provides, maybe they need to take some of their own medicine?

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Re: World Class Security

      Given that the admin was on the ball and the breach was closed before any data extraction took place, I do not think it is fair to start bashing Dell on having been breached.

      They did a far better job at securing their data than many others who have been discussed in these columns this year alone.

      Security is not a passive affair. Firewalls and such are not the only answer, you need active surveillance to be able to catch issues before things go bad and data is extracted. That is what happened here, so kudos to the IT people who knew their job and did it well.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    not suprised

    Former dell worker here, internal IT was pretty short staffed a few years ago, so I wouldn't be surprised if it took a month to see malicious activity. I miss a couple coworkers, but not the company, not at all.

  3. ReadyKilowatt

    "Big Mike" reminded me of the somewhat interesting 00's dramedy Chuck.

    https://chuck-nbc.fandom.com/wiki/Michael_Tucker

  4. R Valentine

    Dell weakened security

    Unfortunately, Dell changed the password parameters and provided incomplete instructions on the web page for changing passwords: special characters previously accepted are now rejected WITHOUT PROPER EXPLANATION — the page simply repeats the same incomplete instructions. Dell has also shortened the maximum length of passwords — a major security failing. It took me two days and three people to be able to get into my Dell Premiere Account.

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