The Oregon Zoo Has Been Hacked

Hackers stole credit card information from Oregon Zoo visitors for six months, according to a notice sent to law enforcement agencies across the country last week.

The Aug. 16 “notice of security incident” says the zoo identified “suspicious activity” in its online ticketing system and opened an investigation. A month later, “the investigation determined that an unauthorized actor redirected customers’ transactions” between last December and June.

One of the notified agencies, the office of the Maine attorney general, issued a report saying 117,815 people were affected (157 of the affected visitors were from Maine).

The notice says people who bought zoo tickets during the six-month window should “remain vigilant” for fraud by “reviewing your account statements and monitoring your free credit reports.”

In response to the cyberattack, the zoo rebuilt its ticketing site from scratch. “We are in the process of notifying everyone and, as an additional precaution, will be offering a year of free credit monitoring for any of those customers who desire it,” says spokesperson Hova Najarian.

According to Forbes, there were 2,365 cyberattacks in 2023, which was a 72% increase since 2021, previously the highest recorded year for attacks.