Comshares Blackmailed !
23/02/2004
"quote"
Sent: Feb 23rd
From: ComShares Administration
Subject: VERY IMPORTANT - CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD NOW
Message: Dear ComShares Members,
We are currently facing a situation. A hacker-extortionist managed to get hold of our members’ records due to a hole with the database software.
He is now demanding a payment of $20,000 and in return he “promises” not to release on the internet the information he stole.
In the next 1-2 days, we will prepare the emails from the hacker/extortionist and post them on the website for your information.
This is a very unfortunate incident that no one wished for, but it happened. Our management admits the flaw in this area of security and is deeply apologetic of the matter. However, one thing you can take comfort in is that in our early consideration of members’ privacy, we did not ask for any of your personal particulars except an email address during account sign-up.
For the overall performance of ComShares and from the standpoint of each member, we know that giving in to his demand is not a solution to the matter. Should we give in, it will be the start of an
endless cycle of extortion. Ultimately, this will increase the overheads and expenses of running ComShares operations and in turn affect profit margins.
We believe none of our members would want us to give in to the hacker. So we have decided to be transparent to our members with the issue on hand and stand up to the hacker-extortionist by making this announcement.
Please be assured that privacy and security will always be one of our foremost concerns. This is a lesson we have learnt from, our technical department have since patched up the hole and
tightened the security. We are very certain that the previous breach of security in our system has been fixed.
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Moving on, it is necessary that EACH ACCOUNT HOLDER SHOULD CHANGE HIS/HER CURRENT PASSWORD ON COMSHARES AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
As for subsequent requests to ComShares Administration for Premature Withdrawal, Changing E-gold Accounts and Password Retrieval, we will require additional verifications as follow:
1. Username
2. Batch Number of the most recent ComShares payment made to your e-gold account.
* Similarly, when making a change to your Password/Email Address or submitting a Request Refund within your login area, we require that you enter the Batch Number of the most recent ComShares payment made to your e-gold account, as found in your e-gold History listing. If you have not yet received your first payment from CS, enter 0 (zero) under Batch number field.
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Any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.
Yours Sincerely,
Comshares Administration
admin@comshares.com
"end quote"
