Here is a text from theinquirer.net
Playboy confirms INQUIRER tale
Watch out. Hackers about
By Adamson Rust , 21/11/2001 01:39:51 BST
THIS, BELOW, IS HOW THE INQUIRER once again broke the story. But the details of the email we received suggested that the breaches of security were much greater than just Playboy. We fear we will have to return to this story later today. [Do you have to Adamson? Ed.] µ
-----Original Message-----
Subject: Potential breach of security
Date : 11/19/01 10:21 AM
Hi
Perhaps you could refer this to your press officer.
I am Mike Magee, editor in chief of online publication
www.theinquirer.net, which covers the IT business.
I have received an email this afternoon from a reader who alleges that he in turn has had an email, claiming your site security has been breached.
Here is part of that email.
------------------------------------ Hi Mike, I have been an avid reader of 'the inquirer' since it's inception. I think the following story may of interest to your readers. A couple of months ago my wife bought me these hip shirts (I think they are hip...) from Playboy's online store @
www.playboy.com, like with most online transactions she used her Visa card. When I checked my email this morning I received this email from 'martyn luther ping minister of information ingreslock 1524'
The credit card number I removed below was my wife's actual Visa number, not a good thing ! I tried emailing Playboy's customer service and the email bounced back as 'undeliverable' (see attached email).
-----Original Message----- From:
hef@playboy.com [mailto:hef@playboy.com] Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2001 11:50 PM To: undisclosed-recipients: Subject: ---------------------------------------------------------------------
The email he attached claimed that your online database has been breached along with names, addresses and credit card numbers.
A comment from Playboy would be appropriate, I believe.
Sincerely
Mike Magee
The INQUIRER
http://www.theinquirer.net/
FROM PLAYBOY
To Our Customers
We have discovered that an unauthorized entry was made to a portion of some of our web site computer systems and to our customer lists. At this point we believe that the hacker was able to access the credit card information of some of our e-commerce customers, many of whom the hacker has already contacted by e-mail.
Even if you haven't received such a message, we encourage you to contact your credit card issuer to determine if there are any unauthorized charges. As a precaution, we have already contacted the credit card companies with whom we work to notify them of the situation.
We are taking a number of other immediate measures to address this situation. We have hired a leading computer security firm to audit our security measures and analyze this particular incident. In addition, we are working with law enforcement authorities on a criminal investigation.
Unfortunately, Playboy is only one of a number of high-profile companies who have been subjected to this kind of malicious hacking. We recognize the value that you place on privacy and security and want to assure you that we are doing everything possible to rectify the situation.
We thank you for your understanding and we will be sure to keep you informed of our efforts to address this matter. For additional information, you can contact our customer service department at 800-993-6339.
Sincerely,
Larry Lux
President and Chief Executive Officer
Playboy.com