The owner of the fast-fashion website Shein was fined $1.9 million. (₱112 Million) because of how it handled a data breach.
In 2018, hackers broke into the parent company of Shein, Zoetop, and stole the credit card information and login information for 39 million Shein accounts.
Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, said that Zoetop had lied about how big. The breach was and only told “a small number” of customers who were affected.
Shein says that it has taken “significant steps” to improve its cyber-security.
Hackers stole the names, email addresses, passwords, and credit card information of tens of millions of Shein users and sold it online.
Another fast-fashion site owned by Zoetop, Romwe, had seven million more account holders who were affected by the 2018 breach.
The office of the New York Attorney General said that Zoetop did not protect customer data and did not tell millions of account holders that their personal information had been made public.
More than 800,000 New York customers were among those who were hurt.
Zoetop lied about how big the hack was. At first, they said that only 6.42 million Shein accounts had been hacked.
Most of the 39 million account holders who were affected were not contacted. And none of their passwords were forced to be changed.
At the time, the company also told customers that it had seen “no evidence” that credit card. Or payment information had been stolen, and that only email addresses and passwords had been take.
Romwe and Shein have become popular places to shop online for millennials and “Gen Z” people who want to buy trendy clothes at low prices.
“We have fully co-operated with the New York attorney general and are pleased to have resolved this matter. Protecting our customers’ data and maintaining their trust is a top priority, especially with ongoing cyber threats posed to businesses around the world.” — Shein spokesperson
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