File this weekend’s addition to the never ending parade of high-profile data breaches under the heading, “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.”
The popular crowd-funding site Kickstarter sent out an email this weekend alerting users that there had been a breach on Wednesday, February 12. You can read the Reuters wire story here. The company stressed that no credit card information was involved.
“While no credit card data was accessed, some information about our customers was. Accessed information included usernames, email addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers, and encrypted passwords. Actual passwords were not revealed, however it is possible for a malicious person with enough computing power to guess and crack an encrypted password, particularly a weak or obvious one.”
All you wanted to do is help someone get a new project started, and now your personally identifiable information may be in the wrong hands. Take Kickstarter’s advice, and change your passwords. You can find some password tips here and here.
If you get any email from Kickstarter that asks you to do anything other than change a password by going directly to the site (for instance if you are asked to click on a link) no matter what, don’t do it!
Remember: you are most susceptible to identity theft after your information has been compromised by a data breach.
