Security Update for TechSoup Subscribers

Tue, 11/20/2007 - 3:47pm — Willow Cook

Convio/GetActive — the service TechSoup uses to manage and distribute By the Cup — is warning subscribers to exercise caution after hackers broke into its systems and stole email addresses and passwords from 92 nonprofit clients.

While the vast majority of TechSoup email newsletter subscribers were unaffected, 3,000 TechSoup subscribers may have had the usernames and passwords they used to manage their email subscriptions stolen.

There is potential for misuse of this information should you use the same email address and password on other personal accounts (e.g, banking, PayPal, Amazon, Web-based email sites, etc.) Convio would like to advise you of important steps that you should take to prevent misuse of your personal information:

If this email address and password are used together on any other accounts, it is recommended you change your password on those accounts immediately.
Pay careful attention to emails you may receive requesting personal and financial information — even if it appears to be from TechSoup — and only provide it when you can confidently
confirm that it has come from a trusted organization.
Report any suspicious activity immediately to the account provider (bank, credit card, etc.) and to credit bureaus (for more information, visit the FTC's site).

TechSoup takes your privacy seriously, and as a protective step have immediately deleted all passwords used to manage email subscriptions. This will not affect your subscriptions or site usage, and you will simply be prompted to create a new password when you go to manage your email subscriptions.

Our vendor Convio has asked us to convey their deepest apology and assurance that security has been restored. If you have any questions, please visit Convio's site, or contact Convio's Security Hotline at 1-800-501-8193.

Sincerely,

The TechSoup Team

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