Networks Solutions warned merchant customers Friday than criminals had hacked into their servers between March and June of this year and may have collected details on 573,928 credit card transactions.
Here's the letter that was sent to merchants:
URGENT: Customer Data Security Alert
Dear Network Solutions Merchant:
We believe that some credit card transactions that took place on your website this past spring
were intentionally diverted from certain of our servers to servers outside Network Solutions by an
unknown source. We believe this may have resulted in unauthorized access to credit card account
numbers, names and addresses of some of your customers. At this point, we have no reports or
other reasons to believe that any credit card account information has been misused and, under
established practice, credit card issuing companies generally will not hold your customers liable for
any fraudulent purchases made using their credit card account numbers that are reported in a timely
way to the issuer.
Your Next Steps:
Under various state statutes, a retailer is to inform its U.S. customers when the security of their
personal information is compromised. To help with this responsibility, we have engaged
TransUnion, one of the leading credit reporting bureaus and an organization with extensive
experience helping companies address customer security issues, to help you with the required
communications to your U.S. customers.
• Step 1: Go to www.careandprotect.com and login using your Network Solutions
username and password.
• Step 2: Follow the instructions on the website and opt-in if you would like TransUnion
to handle notification to your potentially affected U.S. customers.
What TransUnion Will Do:
Free of charge to you and your customers, Network Solutions has arranged for TransUnion to
do the following:
• Provide communications to your U.S. customers that comply with the notification
requirements of individual states as appropriate and provide information that will help your
customers protect their credit card accounts;
• Assemble the mailing lists required for outreach to your U.S. customers;
• Handle the mailing of these communications to your U.S. customers;
• Establish and operate a toll-free hotline that your U.S. customers can call for information;
and
• Provide your U.S. customers with 12 months of free credit monitoring.
You do not have to pay for these services. Network Solutions will pay TransUnion to provide
these services to you and your U.S. customers. If you elect to use this service, Network Solutions
will provide to TransUnion, on your behalf, the necessary information about potentially affected
customers. If you have any questions about TransUnion’s services please visit
www.careandprotect.com.
What Happened:
In the ordinary course of business, Network Solutions identified unauthorized code on servers
supporting some of our E-Commerce merchants’ websites. We promptly removed this code, and all
of our E-Commerce servers are functioning properly. No servers supporting networksolutions.com
were affected.
After conducting an analysis with the assistance of outside experts, we determined that the code
may have been used to transfer data on certain transactions for approximately 4,343 of our more
than 10,000 merchant websites to servers outside the company. The code may have captured
transaction data from approximately 573,928 cardholders for certain periods this spring. Exposure
varied by merchant, but in all cases took place sometime between March 12, 2009 and June 8, 2009.
Transactions after June 8, 2009 were not exposed to the unauthorized code.
We have also informed the appropriate law enforcement agencies of the matter and are working
closely with them on the investigation.
This problem has NOT affected any transactions your customers may have completed
after June 8, 2009, nor any transactions they may make in the future. When you login at
www.careandprotect.com you will be given the date range for the transactions that may have been
affected.
Our Commitment to You:
Your ability to rely on the safety and security of our solutions is our highest priority. We pride
ourselves on our ability to help you build your business, and we are deeply sorry that this has
occurred, and for the concern and inconvenience it causes you and your customers. Unfortunately,
any company operating in our business could have become a victim of this kind of invasion.
Network Solutions is taking action to make it as easy as possible for you to assist your customers
and preserve their goodwill.
Network Solutions is committed to providing you with the solutions you need to build your
business, and to making every effort to ensure that we fully address your concerns and those of your
customers.
Additional information including frequently asked questions is available at
www.careandprotect.com. If you still have questions after visiting the website, please call Network
Solutions at 888-642-0297.
Sincerely,
Roy Dunbar
Chairman & CEO of Network Solutions
