Hacked. Your data is showing.

Written by 5ivecanons Staff

Web.com, one of the worlds largest web development companies, providing services for millions of small business owners has made news the other week.

web.com is a publicly traded company which racked in about 106.5 million dollars in 2014; and you would think they could have used some of that money to up their web security, but you’d be wrong. On Tuesday August 18th, the company announced that around 93,000 customers have had their credit card information exposed.

web.com hosts sites for around 3.3 million customers, which in turn means they have credit card and other personal information for all these people as well. This information was targeted by the unknown hackers who bypassed the web development service’s security on August 13th. Unfortunately, the hackers walked away from the attack with more than just the credit card information of the 93,000 customers. They also were able to identify full names linked to payment accounts, and also the victims private residential addresses.

As far as how the hackers were able to access the information remains a mystery. web.com has been working with a police and a digital security consulting firm in order to better understand both who the attackers are, and how they managed to carry out the attack. Until then web.com is trying to keep the investigation details under wraps.

As for the people who had their personal information compromised, web.com is trying to keep their trust, and attempting to help them through this unfortunate circumstance. The effected customers have been assured that some information was not compromised, such as their Social Security Numbers and the the Credit Verification codes linked to the stolen credit card numbers. Also, web.com is going to offer free credit-monitoring protection to all those effected for one year.

This attack seems to be just another drop in the bucket lately. Over the past few years, several large companies and organizations have been victims of online information hacks:

• In 2014 Target was the victim of the largest online data hack to date. At the end of last year, hackers were able to steal 40 million credit card numbers directly from check out lanes.
• The recent Ashely Madison hack exposed the private data and intentions of about 32 million people, including emails, login usernames/passwords as well as credit card information.
• Lastly, lets not forget that everyone’s favorite government organization, the IRS, was hacked as well. This past May, thieves were able to get private information on 334,000 different tax payers…Yikes!

As you can now see, the intensity and quantity of online data hacks is growing. As the internet and the technologies around it improve, so do the abilities for people to try to grab your information. As we move forward, and technology continues to advance, we need to make sure online security measures advance even quicker; to stay ahead of the attachers and their evil-minded deeds. So in conclusion, forget web.com and come join 5ivecanons, we wont let people get into your files, because we don’t keep files in the first place. Problem solved.

We would love to talk more about protecting your site and private information, come visit us at our downtown office, or give us a call at 502-482-3275.

Sources:

http://thehackernews.com/2015/08/webcom-hacked-credit-card-stolen.html

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/08/17/irs-hack-get-transcript/31864171/

http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-happened-to-your-target-data-that-was-hacked-2014-10

http://www.wired.com/2015/08/happened-hackers-posted-stolen-ashley-madison-data/