Protecting Your On-Line Shopping Accounts

Image courtesy of Zappos

As you likely have heard by now, Zappos.com got hacked.  In an article published by The Inquirer:

“US ONLINE RETAILER Zappos has fallen victim to a cyber attack that could have exposed more than 24 million customers’ details.

Zappos, which is owned by Amazon, has announced to its customers that its servers have been hacked and customer details have been accessed. Luckily for its customers the server containing critical credit card details was not breached.

Tony Hsieh CEO of Zappos said in an email, “We were recently the victim of a cyber attack by a criminal who gained access to parts of our internal network and systems through one of our servers in Kentucky. We are cooperating with law enforcement to undergo an exhaustive investigation.”

The firm said that users’ names, e-mail addresses, billing and shipping addresses, phone numbers, the last four digits of credit cards and/or cryptographically scrambled passwords might have been obtained. The web site confirmed on Twitter that Amazon accounts are unaffected.”

Zappos is suggesting that you change your login password for their account, as well as other e-tailers that you frequent.  It’s also a good idea to NOT save your credit card information and your shipping information on a company’s web site.  I know it’s a pain to have to fill in all the data each time, but maybe it will give you a few minutes to reconsider purchases if you can’t just click and buy!

The Fashionable Team encourages you to take a few minutes and change your passwords at online stores where you shop regularly, and to make protecting and monitoring your on-line security part of your goals for 2012.