Posted by Angela in Internet | 3 Comments
Network Solutions: Jerks Attack Yet Again
Network Solutions, or, as Jeremy likes to call them, the schoolyard bullies of the Internet, have been caught in the news again but not for a lawsuit this time. Oh no, not a lawsuit, but don’t worry it’s something just as big.
One of Network Solution’s servers was breached.
On Friday, Network Solutions reported that one of their servers, holding at least 10,000 e-commerce sites, had transaction data stolen from over 4,000 of those 10,000. That means that nearly 600,000 online shoppers had credit card information stolen among those some 4,000 sites. Any transactions on these sites between March 12 and June 8, 2009, were at high risk of being affected. There have been no public reports of any credit card information having been misused yet, but it has only been four days.
Network Solutions is putting a band-aid on the problem by creating a blog for updates and feedback specifically for Network Solutions’ merchants. You can imagine the amount of panic and frustration all the merchants at Network Solutions must be feeling- and you can read it in their comments. One woman wrote in a comment in response to the initial announcement of the breach,
“Does NetSol realize how catastrophic this can be to its merchants who have their website(s) hosted with them? While I only had 9 transactions affected (out of 120+) during the aforementioned timeframe, that’s 9 transactions TOO many. It only takes 1 transaction of this nature to totally destroy a person’s business.
I have been sick/nauseous over this happening ever since I first heard about it late last night … Because I use the NetSol CC payment system, I don’t see any way to NOT have my personal business reputation TOTALLY destroyed in regards to this happening.”
She is right. One transaction is enough to ruin any reputable business, and Network Solutions is now responsible for almost 600,000 stolen transactions! They must be really ruined.
I don’t want to say I told you so, but if a host has faced lawsuits for its dishonest practices in the past, I would not be looking to them for hosting services.
Hi Angela,
I work for Network Solutions and wanted to let you know that we are taking all the right measures to protect our E-commerce customers and minimize the impact of this issue on them. The Network Solutions team across all levels within the organization has been working round the clock to promptly respond to customer concernsNetwork Solutions team deeply regrets this unfortunate incident and is providing real time assistance to customers at http://www.careandprotect.com .
Thanks,
Shashi
Appreciate the desire to make it right… it’s the least you can do, I guess. But really… once a few hundred thousand credit card numbers are out there in the wild, the damage is pretty much done, isn’t it?
At best you can help these merchants let their customers know if their data was breached… but even then… I mean, the data is still breached. It’s like the adulterous husband who feels bad after he gets caught with his mistress… the only thing he can do is say “I’m sorry.”
Network Solutions has a number of shady business practices surrounding any move that takes business away from them. Just recently I tried to move a client’s registration off of Network Solutions.
* They claimed that the authorization code was never received, and that a call to GoDaddy was needed (the code HAD been received, and the call was NOT needed)
* A monthly service of $35 for reporting was also very hard to remove. For example, auto-renew of the service could not be turned off in their control panel, and there was no way to cancel the service itself online.
* The service would continue indefinitely, even if the domain for which it was monitoring traffic, was gone (meaning the service could not actually report anything, but it could and would continue to collect funds, without warning the user of that situation)
* Tech support said “Oh, the traffic reporting service expires in three weeks, you might as well just leave it” even though the account showed that auto-renew was set
* There is no way to actively confirm a domain transfer that is moving away from Network Solutions, so one must wait passively for five days (or so) for the standard process to force the domain away from Network Solutions. Other registrars, such as GoDaddy.com, allow a user to quicky approve a domain move away from themselves.
Those are a few examples of how Network Solutions intervenes in the processes that should be simple, non-embarrassing, and automatic for the most part.
Along with the domain tasting of which Network Solutions was accused, it makes an unpleasant picture, one that I try to stay far from.