Identity cloud company Okta announced in a Friday blog post its support case system was accessed by a hacker who was able to view files uploaded by customers—news that sent the company’s stock sliding down 11.5%.
Okta’s stock fell more than 11% Friday. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Key Takeaways
- David Bradbury, Okta’s chief security officer, said in the post that all impacted customers were notified and that the company’s support case management system is separate from the Okta client service, which is commonly used for identity authentication and remains fully operational.
- The number of impacted customers is extremely low, according to Okta spokesperson Vitor De Souza, who told TechCrunch that around 1% of customers were affected by the breach.
- Okta’s stock closed down more than 11% on Friday at $75.57, a price it hasn’t traded at since late August.
- Bradbury said the system was accessed using stolen customer access tokens.
Big Number
$4.5 million. That’s the global average cost of a data breach in 2023, according to IBM. The costly figure marks a 15% increase over three years.
Key Background
Large companies like FedEx, Hewlett Packard and T-Mobile use Okta to secure access to their computer systems, according to CBS News. The company, which has a $12.4 billion market capitalization, reported $556 million in revenue in its latest earnings report, most of which was netted through subscriptions. Okta hasn’t been a stranger to breaches. Last year, it reported two hacks—one of which involved the theft of its source code and another where hackers published screenshots showing they had accessed Okta’s internal network.
This article was first published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
