Are you one of the 101 million email accounts compromised via Ebrite, in a 2013 breach identified in 2019?

Image by theDigitalArtist Creative Commons CC0 from https://pixabay.com/en/hacker-cyber-crime-security-1881694/

–Britt Santowski, SPN

The following information is not intended to frighten but to inform. Information breaches revealing personal information, ranging from name and email address to passwords and credit card numbers, is becoming the norm. If you’ve ever gotten that porn-extortion email, it’s because of such an information breach.

There are things that remain in your control.

You’ve probably heard over and over again to have a complicated and unique password for every individual online account you have. Work, home, utilities, banking, social media, job search sites, websites, and all. Personally, I have well over 100 online accounts (116 at last count). At first glance, the notion of having complicated and unique passwords sounds overwhelming.

But, with the right tool, it’s manageable. I use Keepass, an open-source lightweight password program. You only have to remember one keyphrase (eg, MyHomeFone#IsNought456!AndILoveMyMom, or IAmGr8!ThatsWhatISay) and with that, you can access all your login information. Keepass allows you to copy and paste your usernames and passwords, and only retains that information in memory for 20 seconds.

Another tool you can use is a program called Have you been ‘pwned’? This program lets you see if your email address has been compromised. That’s where I learned about the following breach (among many!). Go ahead, visit their site and enter in my email address, britt@imallowed.com. You’ll be impressed. Enter your email address, and see what happens.

My latest breach notification (I’ve signed up!) had details about an Evite breach that was allegedly discovered in 2019, of a breach of information people using Evite up until 2013. In April 2019, the social planning website for managing online invitations Evite identified a data breach of their systems.

Evite recently became aware of a data security incident involving an inactive data storage file associated with Evite user accounts. No user information more recent than 2013 was contained in the file. We explain the circumstances as we understand them below, along with the steps we are undertaking to address the situation.

If you have additional questions about the incident, we encourage you to call our dedicated call center to answer any questions you may have. The call center is open 8 am to 8 pm, Eastern Time, Monday to Friday (except for holidays), and 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, Eastern Time, on Saturday, June 8, and Sunday, June 9. The numbers are:

United States: (877) 221-7485

International: (503) 924-5427

We sincerely regret any inconvenience or concern caused by this incident. We are committed to protecting your information and maintaining your trust and confidence.

From the Have you been ‘pwned’? notification email: “Upon investigation, they found unauthorised access to a database archive dating back to 2013. The exposed data included a total of 101 million unique email addresses (100,985,047, to be exact), most belonging to recipients of invitations. Members of the service also had names, phone numbers, physical addresses, dates of birth, genders, and passwords stored in plain text exposed.”

Other things you can do include have an encryption program installed on your device. Google can help you out, or if you have any trusted geeks in your life, seek recommendations. And, of course, have an active virus check program running at all times.

Got tips? Please, share!

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