Cookware Giant Meyer Discloses Cyberattack that Impacted Employees

Meyer Corporation, the largest cookware distributor in the U.S., and the second-largest globally, has informed U.S. Attorney General offices of a data breach affecting thousands of its employees.

According to the notification letter shared with the U.S. Attorney General offices of Maine and California, Meyer fell victim to a cyberattack on October 25, 2021.

In response, the firm launched an investigation that was concluded on December 1, 2021, revealing that threat actors gained access to personal information belonging to employees of Meyer and its subsidiaries.

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“On or around December 1, 2021, our investigation identified potential unauthorized access to Meyer employee information [including employees of Meyer’s subsidiaries Hestan Commercial Corporation, Hestan Smart Cooking, Hestan Vineyards, and Blue Mountain Enterprises, LLC],” explains the Meyer data breach notification.

The personal information that may have been exposed and copied by the threat actors include the following:

• Full names
• Physical address
• Date of birth
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Social Security number
• Health insurance information
• Medical condition
• Random drug screening results
• COVID vaccination cards
• Driver’s license
• Passports
• Government ID number
• Permanent resident cards
• Immigration status information
• Information on dependents

“Meyer takes the protection of its employees’ personal information seriously. Meyer is offering two years of identity protection services, at no cost, to affected employees and their dependents,” concludes the data breach notification sent to impacted employees.

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Conti behind Meyer’s cyberattack

While Meyer’s announcement doesn’t provide details regarding the cyberattack that resulted in the disclosed data breach, we found a relevant listing on the Conti extortion site dating to November 7, 2021.

The Meyer entry on Conti’s portal offers a ZIP file containing 2% of the data allegedly stolen by the ransomware gang during the cyberattack.

However, the notorious ransomware group hasn’t followed up to publish the remainder 98% in the months that followed, either an indication of their willingness to negotiate indefinitely or due to losing interest.

In either case, now that Meyer has gone public about the incident and offered identity protection services to the affected individuals, there can be no resolution that benefits the malicious actors.