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View Full Version : Dear Valued Monster Customer:


b i o n i c
08-29-2007, 10:34 PM
I dont know why but this whole thing seems extra stinky fishy to me.


Dear Valued Monster Customer:

Protecting the job seekers who use our website is a top priority, and we value the trust you place in Monster. Regrettably, opportunistic criminals are increasingly using the Internet for illegitimate purposes. As is the case with many companies that maintain large databases of information, Monster is from time to time subject to attempts to illegally extract information from its database.

As you may be aware, the Monster resume database was recently the target of malicious activity that involved the illegal downloading of information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses for some of our job seekers with resumes posted on Monster sites. Monster responded to this specific incident by conducting a comprehensive review of internal processes and procedures, notified those job seekers that their contact records had been downloaded illegally, and shut down a rogue server that was hosting these records.

The Company has determined that this incident is not the first time Monster's database has been the target of criminal activity. Due to the significant amount of uncertainty in determining which individual job seekers may have been impacted, Monster felt that it was in your best interest to take the precautionary steps of reaching out to you and all Monster job seekers regarding this issue. Monster believes illegally downloaded contact information may be used to lure job seekers into opening a "phishing" email that attempts to acquire financial information or lure job seekers into fraudulent financial transactions. This has been the case in similar attacks on other websites.

We want to inform you about preventive measures you can take to protect yourself from online fraud. While no company can completely prevent unauthorized access to data, we believe that by reaching out to job seekers like you, the Company can help users better defend themselves against those who have attacked Monster as well as other databases.

We are committed to maintaining an ongoing dialogue with all of our job seekers about Internet security and the steps Monster is taking to protect its job seekers. The Company has placed a security alert on Monster sites offering information to educate you about online fraud. This information can be found at http://help.monster.com/besafe/. We have also included information on Internet safety and examples of fraudulent "phishing" emails at the bottom of this letter.

Monster has launched a series of initiatives to enhance and to protect the information you have entrusted to us. Some of these steps are being immediately implemented, while others will be put into place as appropriate.

We believe these actions are the responsible steps to protect the trust you place in Monster. We are also working with Monster's hundreds of thousands of employer customers to ensure a safe and effective online job search. We will continue to share information with you about the enhancements we are making as we serve as your online career resource partner. We invite you to keep reading to learn more about how to use the Internet safely.

Sincerely,

Signature
Sal Iannuzzi
Chairman and CEO
Monster Worldwide

i don't trust sal too much either.

i've never gotten anything in the mail from them till yesterday. i mean a real paper letter in the mail that says the same thing. then i get this email.

so is this some sort of disclaimer or release from responsibility? like: "they have all your information. now you know. sorry. bye"

YoungRemy
08-29-2007, 10:41 PM
to me it looks like a phishing scam using the recent database intrusion as a scare tactic... I had heard that at least two million users had their accounts compromised... but this to me looks like a scam using the scam itself...

with most phishing scams, they will address you as a random customer, instead of using your member name or real name you used to create the account...

dear valued customer is a bunch of baloney

The Notorious LOL
08-29-2007, 11:28 PM
nah thats legit. The link in the message forwards to monster.com rather than a link pointing to some phony ass page. Plus, generally any phishing scheme would prompt for a username and pass.

marsdaddy
08-30-2007, 07:01 PM
Oh shit, they got my resume details? Next they're going to make me a job offer!:eek:

cookiepuss
08-31-2007, 01:32 PM
there's and article about this in the news (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070831/monster_data_breach.html?.v=1) today:


By Brian Bergstein, AP Technology Writer
Monster's Data Breach, Subsequent Security Efforts Highlight Uneven Online Practices

By now, the perils of securing online data with little more than user names and passwords should be well known. Monster.com learned that lesson late and the hard way, prompting this week's announcement that the Web jobs board will spend millions of dollars to improve its security.

Monster Worldwide Inc. recently discovered that con artists had grabbed contact information from resumes for 1.3 million people -- and likely many more, since Monster now says this was not an isolated incident. Files were pilfered not only from Monster.com but from USAJobs.gov, the federal-government career-listing service operated by Monster.

The stolen information is not by itself ultra-sensitive, since resumes generally do not include Social Security numbers, financial data or account information.

But contact information alone can be lucrative for online criminals, who used what they got from Monster to craft "phishing" e-mails that go after such sensitive data.