[While its rare for me to post news about website defacements, unless its a high profile site, like ACM, NASDAQ, or Attrition. :) I feel a need to post news about this defacement only because I *USED* to watch a great deal of MuchMusic's late-night programming in the USA. That is until the powers that be in Toronto decided they should drop a huge chunk of their Canadian programing and start a channel like MTV, (a network still confused on what the M in MTV stands for), and start a whole new channel in the USA called MuchMusic.tv. Now not to sound like this is a rant. :) but one of the highlights of watching MuchMusic in the USA, was Ed the Sock, http://www.edthesock.com/ & with the new American programing, one of the Canadian programs to get nixed was Ed's show. While this is a show of a sockpuppet, Ed has some really fresh & bright viewpoints on pretty much everything, and its actually worth watching in a world of 500+ channels. - WK] http://www.canoe.ca/NationalTicker/CANOE-wire.MuchMusic-Hacked.html TORONTO (CP) [Aug. 24, 2001] - MuchMusic warned Thursday that some people who entered a contest on its Web site may have had their private information seized by a computer hacker. "We are sending this important message to alert you to the fact that we have reason to believe that our contest databases may have been compromised," reads an e-mail sent to contest entrants. Contestants gave their ages, telephone numbers, age, and other personal information when they visited the music channel's site. The issue came to light after some entrants received prank phone calls from someone claiming to be a MuchMusic employee. "We are taking these complaints very seriously and have launched an investigation," the MuchMusic e-mail reads. An advisory on channel's Web site Thursday night explained how to identify a phone call from a legitimate MuchMusic employee and urged kids under 18 to alert their parents if they receive a prank phone call. -=- http://www.muchmusic.com/contestadvisory.html IMPORTANT SECURITY ADVISORY TO MUCHMUSIC CONTEST ENTRANTS We are sending this important message to alert you to the fact that we have reason to believe that our online contest databases may have been compromised. Keeping your personal information confidential and secure is very important to us and we have taken appropriate steps to ensure that all such data remains private. However, as the Internet is not a 100% secure environment, there is the potential for your personal data to get into the wrong hands. Recently, we learned that some of our contest entrants received "prank" phone calls from people pretending to be MuchMusic employees. We are taking these complaints very seriously and have launched an investigation. If you receive a call from anyone telling you they are from MuchMusic and they ask you to do anything OTHER than to dial our headquarters at 416 591 7400 followed by a four-digit extension, HANG UP. This is a prank phone call. If you are the victim of such a prank phone call and are under the age of 18, IMMEDIATELY tell your parents what has happened. In addition, the phone company suggests that you do the following: - dial *69 immediately following the prank phone call to identify the number of the caller. Write down the number and alert your local telephone company. - In the event the number is blocked, dial *57. This registers the call with your phone company. For further advice, you should then contact your phone company by dialing "0". Please note that the phone company bills you for these *69 and * 57 services. HOW WILL I KNOW IF SOMEONE FROM MUCHMUSIC IS CALLING ME ABOUT A CONTEST? Heres how you can tell a real MuchMusic contest call from a prank call: youll get a call between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. local time from someone in either the MuchMusic Promotions department or the MuchMusic Website department. That person will simply give you their name, say theyre from MuchMusic, and ask you to call back MuchMusic headquarters at 416-591-7400, followed by a 4-digit extension. When you call back that number, you will reach that same MuchMusic employee or her/his voicemail. That SAME person will then call you back and start the contest process. If you have any questions, please send an email to contestsat_private Please make sure to put the following in the subject line: "Contest Security Question". - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon Aug 27 2001 - 08:10:31 PDT