Workday Data Breach: Personal Information Stolen from Third-Party Database by Hackers

Workday, one of the largest providers of human resources technology, has confirmed that hackers gained unauthorized access to a third-party customer relationship database and stole personal information.

In a blog post published Friday night, the company stated that hackers exfiltrated an unspecified amount of personal data from the database, which primarily stored contact information such as names, email addresses, and phone numbers.

Workday did not explicitly confirm whether any customer data was compromised. However, the company noted, “There is no indication that customer tenants or their data were accessed,” which is typically used by corporate clients to store HR-related information and employees’ personal data.

The company warned that the stolen information could be used for social engineering attacks, where hackers attempt to obtain sensitive information by intimidating or deceiving victims.

Workday serves over 11,000 corporate clients worldwide, supporting approximately 70 million users. The hack was detected on August 6.

The company did not disclose the name of the third-party database, but recent patterns of cyberattacks targeting Salesforce-hosted databases for large companies suggest a similarity. Recently, Google, Cisco, Qantas Airlines, and Pandora experienced data theft from their Salesforce databases.

Google indicated that the hacker group ShinyHunters is behind these attacks, using voice phishing techniques to steal corporate data. The stolen data could later be used to demand ransom, similar to ransomware group tactics.

Workday spokesperson Conor Spielmaker did not provide direct answers to TechCrunch’s questions regarding the amount of data stolen or whether information from specific individuals or corporate clients was compromised.

At the time of publication, Workday’s blog post included a “noindex” tag, instructing search engines to ignore the page, making it harder for the general public to find this information.

Security experts warn that such data breaches can quickly escalate into major cybersecurity threats.