Hosting provider, The Planet experiences data breach
Global IT hosting provider, The Planet recently experienced a data breach of customer’s log-in credentials.How many victims? Up to 2,000 customers potentially affected.
What type of personal information? Customer portal log-in names and passwords.
What happened? The breach is believed to be the result of a compromised employee account, according to Will Charnock, vice president of technology at The Planet.
What was the response? A notification email was sent to all customers. Those affected were advised to immediately change their password for Orbit (The Planet's customer portal), and be alert for suspicious activity on accounts.
Measures were taken to improve the security of the website.
Quote: “We have identified the methods by which the systems were compromised and have closed those holes,” a statement sent to victims read. “In addition to those actions, we will be implementing additional security measures to further strengthen the infrastructure and systems."
Details: Two user accounts were definitely affected and no credit card information is believed to have been compromised.
Source: WHIR news, Web Hosting Industry Review, “The Planet Warns of Security Breach”, Oct. 17, 2008.
