I always have liked Zappos.com, the online retailer that sells shoes first and foremost. Firstly, they have great shoes - at great prices, so I have indulged my feet over the years with their wares. Therefore, my name is among the many millions of customers (24 million, by some accounts, although that seems like a lot) whose account information were compromised over the weekend by hackers.
Zappos sent out a timely email this morning that began by saying "First, the bad news," and then went on to explain the problem in detail. The good news, apparently, was that the database with full credit card information was not accessed or compromised.
However, the bad news is bad - hackers got information including the last 4 digits of the credit card, and PASSWORD information along with email information, along with lots of other personal information (name, address, phone). That's pretty bad. Although they have "expired" all our passowords, what Zappos wants their customers to do is this: 1) update their passwords on Zappos, and then, 2) go around the Web updating any other Website that might be using the SAME PASSWORD.
Wow. Really? That's a tall order.
Who out there could think of a way to do that? This is an online consumer's nightmare. Cleaning up and changing Website password information proactively. Does anyone keep a list of ALL the Websites where you shop online? I seriously doubt it, which means more trouble may be in store for all us chickens. Hackers may try to do something with our personal information other online etailer sites - it's just unclear what.
I have rarely felt like pulling back from doing online shopping as I think the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, but today's experience with Zappos has given me pause to regret my online shopping persona. But Zappos just did.
I agree with your blog. I don't like shopping online due to following problems mentioned above. Nice blog.
Posted by: shop online | January 17, 2012 at 03:45 AM