Ricardo data breach exposes information of 890,000 users

A cyberattack hit the systems of Ricardo, one of the most widely used online platforms in Switzerland for buying and selling new and used items between private individuals. Parent company SMG Swiss Marketplace Group announced on Friday that the security incident had led to the exposure of personal data from around 890,000 user accounts registered on the platform.

According to the company, the names, postal addresses and phone numbers of the people affected were made public. Users' email addresses and passwords were not compromised, a detail the company was keen to highlight in its statement.

Flaw identified and fixed

The cyberattack took place on Wednesday, October 7, when Ricardo detected suspicious activity on its servers. Faced with the anomaly, the company reacted immediately, putting in place technical measures to secure its IT systems. The vulnerability that had allowed unauthorized access to the data has since been identified and fully resolved, according to the company.

Checks carried out in the days following the attack confirmed that the intrusion had indeed resulted in the exposure of personal data belonging to the platform's users. Based on these findings, Ricardo has begun informing those affected directly. The company is explaining to them what happened, what implications the incident may have, and what precautions they can take to protect themselves.

In addition to informing users, Ricardo announced two further steps on the legal and institutional front: filing a criminal complaint with the police and a formal report to the Federal Office for Cybersecurity, the national authority responsible for the matter.

Ricardo is also widely used in Italian-speaking Switzerland, where the platform is used by many private individuals to buy and sell used items online. The data breach therefore affects, along with the rest of the country, part of the Ticino public active on the site.