Nikon Customer Data Leaks Onto Web

Nikon, the $6 billion camera and imaging products manufacturer, on Thursday said that data on 3,235 customers inadvertently became accessible on the Web site of Nikon World, its quarterly customer magazine.

During a nine-hour period, data including customers’ names, addresses and credit card numbers could viewed on NikonWorld.com. However, the company said only nine individuals–who were new magazine subscribers–accessed the information and that the only information accessible was that of subscribers who had signed up for the magazine since Jan. 1, according to The Associated Press.

Nikon said the disclosure resulted from a problem with an external vendor, AP reported. Nikon did not respond to Baseline‘s requests for more information about the incident.

According to AP report, Nikon contacted all the subscribers whose information was revealed as well as the nine new subscribers who were able to view it.

The U.S. division of Nikon this month won top honors in the 2006 Baseline/The Hackett Group ROI Awards. Nikon’s winning project involved a customer relationship management system that the company claimed yielded a 3,203% three-year return on investment.

The disclosure follows other recent incidents in which private data has been accidentally disclosed.

These have included the thefts of laptops at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in May (see What You Can Learn From the VA’s Snafu), publishing company Wolters Kluwer (see Laptop Lifted From Data Provider’s Office) and the Federal Trade Commission (see Security: Don’t Spring a Data Leak).