Puulilo’s search engine feature has been used for vandalism. Now the situation has been corrected.
The search engine of Puuilo’s online store was the target of vandalism. JOEL MAISALMI
The online store of the department store chain Puuilo was the target of vandalism during the night between Monday and Tuesday.
The search engine no longer showed the correct results, but instead the suggestions were racist, violent and directed at individuals. Iltalehti does not publish these keywords because of their hostility.
Screenshots of the search terms quickly spread around social media and discussion boards.
Puuilo has discovered the problem and fixed it, says Puuilo’s CEO Juha Saarela.
– Now the online store is fine. This was an unfortunate incident and we apologize that this has happened. It’s a shame that someone has the time and energy for this kind of activity, Saarela commented.
Pure vandalism
The smart search feature has been disabled for the time being. Screenshot
Director of Information Management at Puulio Juha Parviainen says that in the case a feature found in the online store’s search engine had been used maliciously.
– Last night, screenshots of the search engine started to spread on various online platforms. We noticed this at seven o’clock in the morning and we immediately started an investigation, says Parviainen.
– This is vandalism. Our systems have not been hacked and information security has not been compromised.
According to Parviainen, Puuilo’s online store has an intelligent and learning feature in the product search. That is, when users enter something there, the inputs are captured. In this way, the search engine can, for example, identify a word with a spelling error and offer a correctly written spelling instead.
– This feature was invented to be used maliciously. We have received a large number of entries, so for example, with the help of several people, we have been able to enter rudeness into the search engine, says Parviainen.
The feature is now temporarily disabled. If you enter a word into the search engine, it no longer offers word suggestions.
– It’s about stupid vandalism. Here, a feature in our online store has been used incorrectly. Now the feature is not in use and we are investigating whether the functionality can be used again in the future, CEO Saarela adds.