OTTAWA — Giant Tiger Stores Ltd. says contact information for some of its customers was compromised in an "incident" linked to a third-party vendor it uses.
Spokesperson Alison Scarlett did not name the vendor but says the Ottawa-based discount retailer uses the company to manage its customer communications and engagement.
Sault Ste. Marie has two Giant Tiger locations: Wellington Square Mall on Trunk Road and Market Mall on Second Line West.
After learning about a security concern related to that vendor recently, Scarlett says Giant Tiger began contacting customers about the incident, urging them to exercise caution when opening emails and receiving phone calls.
Scarlett says no payment information or passwords were part of the data compromised.
Giant Tiger store systems and applications were also unaffected.
She adds there is no indication that the information has been misused but says the company is working hard to resolve the incident as quickly and openly as possible.
"We deeply regret that the incident occurred and remain committed to employing best practices to prevent these types of incidents," she says in an email to The Canadian Press.
Below is the full text of an email sent to Giant Tiger customers this morning, under the subject line: "Important Security Notice."
Valued customer,
We are writing to inform you about a recent security incident involving your information. Giant Tiger values the trust and loyalty of our customers above all else, and we want to ensure you are aware of the facts.
What happened
Giant Tiger recently became aware of a security incident affecting a third-party vendor we use to manage interactions with our customers. We acted quickly to ensure our own systems remained secure and hired cybersecurity experts to assist with an independent investigation.
On March 15, 2024, our investigation determined that, as a result of the incident, an unauthorized third party was able to obtain copies of information about Giant Tiger customers on or about March 4, 2024.
What information was involved
We have determined that because of this security incident, information belonging to certain Giant Tiger customers was obtained by an unauthorized third party. The information involved varies by individual.
- If you subscribe to Giant Tiger emails or created an account at gianttiger.com, the information related to you contains your name and email address.
- If you are a GT VIP® loyalty plan member, the information related to you contains your name, email address, and phone number.
- If you placed an online order for home delivery, the information related to you contains your name, email address, street address, and phone number.
- If you placed an order for pick up to your local store the information related to you contains your name, email address, and phone number.
What we are doing
In addition to investigating the matter, we have reported this incident to relevant privacy commissioners, and we are reaching out to each of our customers whose information was involved in the incident.
What you can do
You should remain cautious, as always, when receiving emails, mail, text messages or phone calls that appear to come from Giant Tiger. Fraudsters can manipulate the sender's email address or outgoing phone number to make you believe that the email or text you are receiving is from a legitimate source.
Be particularly vigilant when communications request your personal information, payment information or passwords. Giant Tiger will never ask you for your payment information and password, and we only request personal information if you initiated contact with us. For example, we may ask you to confirm your identity if you call our customer service team.
For more information
For more information please visit https://www.gianttiger.com/
We deeply regret that the incident occurred. We want to assure you that we are making every effort to resolve the incident as quickly and as transparently as possible. Your privacy is important to us, and we remain committed to employing best practices to prevent these types of incidents.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support.
Sincerely,
The Giant Tiger Team