Taylor Technologies hacked -personal info may be compromised

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SeanB

SeanB

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Mar 27, 2007
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Missouri City (suburb of Houston, TX)
I received the following pm from a SteveK who thoughtfully suggested giving everyone a heads up:

Sean,

This evening, I received an automated, recorded telephone call from Taylor Technologies advising that their website had been hacked and that customers who recently placed orders with them could have their account/credit card information compromised by the hacker(s). I also received an email from Taylor Technologies that is listed below in its entirety.

Since many postings on troublefreepool.com reference Taylor Technologies as a source for pool testing chemicals, I believe it would be beneficial to post some reference to this issue on the site. Some folks don't check email regularly, so any effort to get this information out quickly would be beneficial.

Thanks for your consideration on this issue.
Regards,
SteveK
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Dear Customer,



You are receiving this written alert because you have recently placed an order for water-testing supplies on the Taylor Technologies website, www.taylortechnologies.com, using a credit card. You may have already received a telephone call from us, as well.



Late this afternoon we were notified by the company which hosts our website that they detected an unauthorized user on the administrative side of the site. It is possible that your order information, including your credit card information, has been accessed by this unauthorized party. At this time, no other details are known about this breach of security. An investigation is underway. We have shut down the shopping function on our website and it will remain closed until this matter is resolved.



We suggest that you contact your credit card company immediately to let them know and that you monitor your account closely for unauthorized charges.

We also advise you contact any of the three consumer reporting companies below to place a fraud alert on your credit report. Fraud alerts can help prevent an identity thief from opening an account in your name. You only need to contact one of the three companies to place an alert. The company you call is required to contact the other two, which will place an alert on their versions of your report, too. Within a short time, you should receive a confirmation from all three companies. If you do not, contact that company directly to place a fraud alert. Here is the contact information:

· Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241 , Atlanta , GA 30374-0241

· Experian: 1-888-397-3742; www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532 , Allen , TX 75013

· TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790 , Fullerton , CA 92834-6790

All three credit reporting agencies will send you a copy of your credit report free of charge. Even if you do not find any suspicious activity on your initial credit reports, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recommends that you check your credit reports periodically. Victim information sometimes is held for use or shared among a group of thieves at different times. More advice about dealing with the possibility of stolen personal information is available on the FTC’s website: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/i ... index.html

We deeply regret any disruption and difficulties caused by this notice of the potential breach of your order information. We will contact you again when we learn more. Until then, if you want to reach us, please call Customer Service on our toll-free line: 800-TEST KIT (837-8548).

Sincerely,



Patricia A. Fitzgerald

Vice President, Marketing

TAYLOR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

31 Loveton Circle, Sparks , MD 21152

410/472-4340, ext. 140

410/771-4291 fax

[email protected]
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Thanks Steve!

PS - No one's info has ever been compromised by buying refills over at tf-testkits. ;)
 
Mike,

Interestingly, not a chance. My refills are not ordered thru Taylor with a credit card.

Not that I wouldn't do it that way, even now. I've never been overly concerned about that info being compromised. I've always thought that's you're far more at risk giving a Credit Card to the waitstaff in a restaurant. Worse yet, somehow transmitting your credit card along with your social security #.......that would seem like it could be trouble. Of course, you're never asked to include those two things in any legitimate internet transaction.

At the Tftestkit site, those payments (credit card or Paypal) are handled thru a Paypal gateway which I would think would be about as secure as you can get. There is no financial info, mine or yours, on the TFtestkit site.

After all the above, I'm pretty sure the bad guys are working 16 hours a day trying to figure out ways to get all of our money.......some things never change.
 
jimvr4 said:
I received the call and email as well. I decided to call the CC company and request a new number just to be safe.
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That's what I did,also. I will also call one of the credit agencies -- the thought of identity theft scares me more than charges on a credit card that I can flag as fraudulent.
 
duraleigh said:
Mike,

Interestingly, not a chance. My refills are not ordered thru Taylor with a credit card.

Not that I wouldn't do it that way, even now. I've never been overly concerned about that info being compromised. I've always thought that's you're far more at risk giving a Credit Card to the waitstaff in a restaurant. Worse yet, somehow transmitting your credit card along with your social security #.......that would seem like it could be trouble. Of course, you're never asked to include those two things in any legitimate internet transaction.

At the Tftestkit site, those payments (credit card or Paypal) are handled thru a Paypal gateway which I would think would be about as secure as you can get. There is no financial info, mine or yours, on the TFtestkit site.

After all the above, I'm pretty sure the bad guys are working 16 hours a day trying to figure out ways to get all of our money.......some things never change.
Click to expand...

Hey Dave,

You're exactly right about the bad guys working sixteen hours a day trying to figure out ways to get all of our money....almost sounds like we're talking about Congress, doesn't it? :lol: Thanks for letting your customers know that their information should be perfectly safe. What I said about your information possibly being compromised was said in jest, kind sir. :) Just an ironic play on what Sean wrote about everyone's info never being pilfered from your site.
 

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