“Hacker Safe” Geeks.com Becomes “Hacker Prone”

Geeks.com, a website certified by McAfee as "Hacker Safe", is notified of being intruded. Geeks.com made this notification on January 4, 2008 revealing indefinite customers that their financial as well as personal data is at stake because of an unwanted intrusion into the system that runs the site of the online technology retailer. Geeks.com, which operates with a business name Genica Corp., addressed a letter to its customers which said that the company found the security intrusion on December 5, 2007.

The Chief of Security of Genica, Jerry L. Harken revealed in his letter that there is a possibility that an unknown person gets an access to users' name, telephone number, resident address, e-mail address, credit card number, card verification number and expiration date, as reported by The Consumerist on January 4, 2008. Jerry further said that the team is investigating the security breach but it seems that the hacker might have accessed the information by hacking their e-commerce website.

The website reported the breach to Visa and the federal authorities. Geeks.com is appealing its customers to examine the statement of their credit cards in order to keep a check on unauthorized charges. It has also set up help numbers for its non-US customers. The help line numbers have already been activated on January 8, 2008 for all those who have queries and questions about the incident. The company is also flashing the contact details of all major credit agencies so that all thefts and frauds can be reported easily.

Harken in his letter expressed grief and regret about the security breach on their website, and Geeks.com has taken the issue very seriously. Apart from this, the website has also reported the intrusion to local law enforcement authorities, to the Secret Service and to all other federal authorities as well.

In spite of the hacking incident, Geeks.com still flaunts a "Hacker Safe" banner by McAfee's ScanAlert Though it fell out of ScanAlerts' standards requirements in June last year (2007) and in December, confirmed ScanAlert spokesman Nigel Ravenhill, as per news published by COMPUTERWORLD.com on January 7, 2008.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 1/21/2008