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Data breach reveals distressing info: people who order pineapple on pizza

(2023/09/21)


Pizza Hut's Australian outpost has suffered a data breach.

The baked goods purveyor has delivered bitter news to around 190,000 customers: that their name, delivery address, email address, and phone numbers have been accessed by unautorised entities.

Even more seriously, pizza order histories have also leaked.

[1]

Yes, dear reader – that means the bad guys have seen a database of people who like pineapple on their pizzas.

[2]

[3]

We can only hope that whoever lifted the data doesn't devise some horrible extortion scheme, threatening to reveal that shameful secret to the victims' loved ones and employers.

Pizza Hut's Australian operation told customers it learned of the incident in early September and described it as "unauthorized third party" access to a subset of its data.

[4]

"We secured our systems, engaged forensic and cyber security specialists and initiated an ongoing investigation to help us understand what occurred, and identify the data that was impacted," explained the Hut's Down Under CEO Phil Reed.

This is not the first time the fauxtalian restaurant chain has been burned by cyber crims. Its UK and US presences were [5]melted by ransomware in January 2023, and in 2019 it [6]warned customers after some loyalty scheme accounts were compromised.

In 2017, Pizza Hut USA [7]suffered "a temporary security intrusion" that saw some customers' credit card numbers leak.

[8]

Quality infosec appears not be a "fries with that" (or in this case garlic bread) add-on for fast food chains. A search of The Register 's archives also turns up a 2016 attack on [9]KFC's loyalty scheme , a 2023 [10]privacy SNAFU at McDonald's South Korea that saw the burger chain fined $530,000 for storing customer data on an unsecured SMB share, [11]unauthorized employee biometric data collection at White Castle and [12]unnecessary customer location data harvesting at Tim Horton's.

We've also seen Burger King [13]sending spam – which is at least preferable to serving it.

Clearly, plenty of fast food chains are willing to match their crimes against the culinary arts with poor infosec hygiene.

Only Pizza Hut, however, also does offensive things with pineapples. We hope. ®

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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZQwUQ4D4kp@FpBt45W0SxQAAAMY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZQwUQ4D4kp@FpBt45W0SxQAAAMY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZQwUQ4D4kp@FpBt45W0SxQAAAMY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZQwUQ4D4kp@FpBt45W0SxQAAAMY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/11/in_brief_security/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2019/06/06/pizza_hut_hacked_tells_rewards_users_to_change_passwords/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2017/10/16/pizza_hut_data_breach/

[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZQwUQ4D4kp@FpBt45W0SxQAAAMY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2016/12/12/why_did_the_chicken_cross_the_road_cos_kfcs_been_hacked/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/23/south_korea_privacy_fines_mcdonalds/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/18/white_castle_fingerprints_fine/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/03/tim_hortons_app_collected_location/

[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/09/burger_king_blank_receipts/

[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/



Having grown up in Hawaii

redpawn

and living there now, I'll pass on the pineapple on pizza as an abomination. Even egg on pizza is better.

Re: Having grown up in Hawaii

Ian Johnston

OK, so you don't like it. Don't order it. Why to do care, as you seem to, if other people do like it? Who, in short, died and made you the arbiter of pizza propriety?

Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch

Plenty of cheesed-off customers, I bet.

I don't understand...

Sorry that handle is already taken.

...peoples' obsession with what others are putting on their pizza.

If you don't like pineapple on pizza, don't order pizza with pineapple on it. Simple!

Re: I don't understand...

Yorick Hunt

It's the Pom factor - anything more exotic than "bangers and mash" is considered taboo.

Re: I don't understand...

Phil O'Sophical

Bangers and mash on a pizza? Ewww

Re: I don't understand...

Stork

In Denmark you can get roast beef and sauce bearnaise on yours if you fancy.

No, I didn’t.

Re: I don't understand...

Doctor Syntax

Remember, functional requirements are always important. I usually buy pizzas with pineapple as that's the best way to ensure there's no garlic which SWMBO doesn't like.

Re: I don't understand...

Jellied Eel

I usually buy pizzas with pineapple as that's the best way to ensure there's no garlic which SWMBO doesn't like.

Hmm.. I'd never considered that. Then again, I like pizzas with ham, pineapple and anchovy. I'm also wondering what data aggregators and miners could make from this new data. Dislikes garlic, orders a lot of sunblock, location tracking shows all activity after dark. I guess if vampires and immortals do exist, data mining and facial recognition is going to make it a whole lot harder to stay in the shadows.

Also as there are elections coming up, if there are political preferences. Do Democrats or Republicans prefer pineapple? Could swing voters be tempted by the right (or left) toppings? Also medical. I have that annoying gene that makes corriander/cilantro taste nasty, but maybe there's some genetic rather than social reason why people dislike pineapple. But I suspect it'll just get used to flog us stuff we don't want.

Re: I don't understand...

Dr_N

Next people will be supporting ketchup & mayonnaise on their chips. The savages.

Rikki Tikki

(channeling Barry McKenzie)

... tell them what to do with the rough end of a pineapple.

Ball boy

An open letter to the blackhats out there:

Could you please focus on exposing data on politicians; their home addresses, bank details, phone numbers and so on?

If you did that successfully, we'd very quickly evolve procedures to mitigate data losses like this.

Thank you.

Adrian 4

You don't need blackhats to do this, you can just improve the reporting policy.

" .. details on 190,000 customers, including an estimated 2,000 politicians and law makers."

Ian Johnston

[1]Why the hell does it matter to anyone what other people have on their pizza?

[1] https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/225/041/tumblr_lwudgwhIJv1qh87wbo1_1280.jpg

Dr_N

Wow. Someone really doesn't like the No Pineapple on Pizza viewpoint. What's your take on Marmite on sushi?

Pineapple on pizza...

Dan 55

... is the best pizza.

Some people may look at this post and think it's merely an up/downvote experiment, but I really do believe this.

Elizabeth David on the first chain store pizza in London.

Bebu

The late Mrs David had some pithy comments, in a newpaper article reviewing a newly open pizza chain store in London, about what did and did not constitute a valid pizza which I would reproduce but the only online quote brings up a musky effing X. Barrington Bradman Bing McKenzie (Barry McKenzie) is fervently implored to insert either end of the pineapple into the X management.

I think ED only admitted (Mozzarella) cheese, black olives and anchovies.

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