Important information about a security incident in our online shop
Schwerte, 07. August 2026
Dear Customer,
Protecting your data matters to us, and your security is important to us. That is why we are informing you today, openly and in full, about a security incident affecting our online shop at https://shop.schwerter-orchideenzucht.de.
What happend?
On 3 August 2026, an attacker gained access to our server via a WordPress installation operated alongside the shop. From there, they were able to browse the file system and obtained the access credentials for our online shop’s database.
We detected the attack on 4 August 2026 at 9:50 a.m. (CEST). By 10:05 a.m., all of the attacker’s access had been blocked and both the website and the online shop had been taken offline completely.
Important: the security vulnerability was not in the online shop itself, but in the separately operated WordPress installation.
Which data may be affected?
By obtaining the database credentials, the attacker had the technical means to access the customer data stored in the shop. This data comprises:
- Form of address
- First and last name
- Postal address
- Email address
- Telephone number
- Order and invoice data
- Hashed passwords
Our analysis – which included the commands the attacker executed and which were logged on the server – shows no indication that the customer data was in fact read or copied. Based on everything we have been able to establish, this did not happen. However, we cannot rule it out with absolute certainty. For this reason, we are informing you as a precaution.
Your password was never stored in plain text, but only as a hash, from which the original password cannot be reconstructed.
Complete payment details such as credit card numbers or bank account details are not stored in our shop; payments are processed exclusively by our payment service providers.
What have we done?
- Immediate shutdown of the website and shop within 15 minutes of detection
- A specialist cyber security incident response provider was brought in the same day
- Full forensic analysis and documentation of the incident; every change made by the attacker was identified
- Restoration of the shop and website from a clean backup taken before the attack
- All credentials changed – including those for all connected service providers, such as payment processing
- All customer passwords replaced with randomly generated passwords that are unknown even to us
- Since 5 August 2026, the shop and the website have been running in separate, additionally secured environments and on up-to-date software
- The incident has been reported to the competent data protection supervisory authority (Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen – the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information for North Rhine-Westphalia)
What should you do now?
- Set a new password.
Your previous password is no longer valid. The next time you visit us, please use the “Forgot password” function. Please type the address
https://shop.schwerter-orchideenzucht.de
directly into your browser and do not follow links from emails – including this one. - Change your password with other services as well.
If you use the same or a similar password with other providers, please change it there too. - Be particularly alert to emails, messages and phone calls.
If data was in fact obtained, you may be contacted in a targeted way, with reference to your genuine order or customer details, in an attempt to persuade you to disclose passwords or payment information. Messages of this kind often look convincingly authentic.
Please note: we will never ask you for your password, your full payment details, TANs (transaction authentication numbers) or confirmation codes by email, telephone or messaging service. Do not open unexpected attachments and do not click links in messages whose origin you cannot reliably identify. - Check your bank and card statements.
Report anything unusual to your bank without delay. - If in doubt, ask us.
If you are unsure whether a message genuinely comes from us, please contact us directly using the contact details below.
Your points of contact
If you have any questions about this incident or about the processing of your data, you can reach us at:
info@schwerter-orchideenzucht.de
+49 2304 9425013
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority.
We sincerely regret this incident and apologise for any inconvenience caused. We have fully investigated and eliminated the cause, and have fundamentally rebuilt and separated our systems so that an incident of this kind cannot happen again.
Yours sincerely,
Schwerter-Orchideenzucht
Guido Schoettler
Bergstr. 8
58239 Schwerte
Germany
https://shop.schwerter-orchideenzucht.de