When it comes to the security of your personal information on the Internet, it appears no one can be trusted. Improving computer security appears to be a cat and mouse game between security experts and malicious programmers as more and more Internet based businesses fall victim to security breaches. Play.com is one of the most recent big Internet organisations to be affected by a security breach similar to that which has affected a number of technology providers in the last few months. As a result, customers have been warned to be careful and on alert as some of their personal detail may have been compromised. While no payment details were stolen, users have been warned to be weary of spam emails that may contain harmful links to malicious Websites.
According to a company statement “On Sunday 20 March some customers reported receiving a spam e-mail to e-mail addresses they only use for Play.com. We believe this issue may be related to some irregular activity that was identified in December 2010 at our e-mail service provider, Silverpop. Investigations at the time showed no evidence that any of our customer e-mail addresses had been downloaded. We reacted immediately by informing all our customers of this potential security breach in order for them to take the necessary precautionary steps.” Meanwhile, Silverpop – the US-based firm employed by Play.com to manage its e-mail marketing and communications in 2008, remains confident that the breach was only an isolated incident.
As always, Internet users have to be careful whether or not there is a security breach. You should only open emails from trusted sources and beware of messages that contain links to blacklisted Websites containing malware. Furthermore, avoid giving out personal information such as your bank or credit card details to those that request for them via emails. Affected Play.com customers have been advised to forward any suspicious messages, particularly those that appear to mimic original Play.com emails, to privacy@play.com.
Play.com, which claims to stock all major movies on DVD, sells DVDs, CDs, MP3s, Video Games, Electronics, Books and Ringtones with free delivery to customers in UK and Europe.
Talking Point
Do you take any steps to check whether your email messages are authentic or not?
Well, China proved a few years ago that no one is safe. However, I was reading that lately hackers aren’t in it for the money- they’re in it for the power. It’s a shame that large companies like Play have to be subjected to such a warfare, because it makes everyone a little weary. After all, everything is turning to the digital age, which makes you wonder is anything safe?
Hopefully, more effort will be put into researching and developing online/internet security.
There is know company is save from malicious programmers, one should just be very careful and update security from time to time. I dont used to take any step to check the authentic of my mail.