Salesforce Investigates Gainsight Breach Affecting Customer Data

Salesforce is currently investigating a breach that has compromised certain customer data through applications published by Gainsight, a company that provides customer management solutions. According to a notice from Salesforce, the breach involves Gainsight-published applications that are integrated with Salesforce and managed directly by customers.

The report states that there is no evidence suggesting that the issue stems from a vulnerability within the Salesforce platform itself, indicating that the compromise is related to Gainsight's external connection to Salesforce.

A Salesforce spokesperson referred inquiries to the company's dedicated incident page for further updates. Gainsight has acknowledged that it is investigating a Salesforce connection issue but has not confirmed any breach.

The spokesperson for Gainsight did not provide immediate comments to TechCrunch. The implications of this incident are serious, as Gainsight serves numerous corporate clients, including Airtable, Notion, and GitLab.

GitLab's security team is reportedly also looking into the matter. The prolific hacking group ShinyHunters has claimed responsibility for the breach, stating that if Salesforce does not negotiate with them, they will create a new website to publicly share the stolen data.

This tactic is common among financially motivated cybercriminals. ShinyHunters claims to have obtained data from nearly a thousand companies, similar to a previous breach linked to Salesloft in August, which allowed hackers to access connected Salesforce instances and steal sensitive information, including access tokens.

The earlier Salesloft breach also affected major corporations such as Allianz Life, Cloudflare, and Google. Gainsight confirmed being among the victims of those earlier breaches. The interconnectedness of businesses in today’s digital landscape is underscored by this incident, showcasing how a breach at one company can have far-reaching effects on others.

Organizations must remain vigilant about cybersecurity as the ramifications of such incidents can lead to significant data exposure and trust erosion among customers.