9.8 Document for Analysis: Hackers Hijack E-Mail Addresses (Objs. 1–4)
Your Task. Analyze the following poorly written e-mail, and list at least seven weaknesses. If your instructor directs, revise it using the suggestions you learned in this and previous chapters.
To: Kara Khalial
From: Justin Small
Subject: Customer Security Incident at Princeton Payment
Systems
Cc:
Companies and individuals across the country are experiencing more and more security breaches. This is to let you know that you are receiving this e-mail because of a recent unfortunate security breach at Princeton Payment Systems. Rest assured, however, that as a customer of Princeton, your privacy was never at risk. We promise to guard your privacy around the clock.
Hackers last week were able to maliciously exploit a new function that we were trying to use to make the customer log-in process faster for you and our other customers. The hackers were ingenious and malicious, going to extreme lengths to gain access to some customer addresses at Princeton. You should now beware of scams that may result from your address being used in phishing scams. To learn more, go to http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/alerts/ phishing.html.
To provide even more information about this incident, the U.S. postal service will bring you a letter with more information. Taking your privacy very seriously, e-mail addresses are heavily protected here at Princeton. Within hours of the hacker break-in, the log-in mechanism was disabled and a new procedure was established. The user is now required to enter their e-mail address and their password before they can log in successfully. E-mail addresses were the only information the hackers got. Other information such as account information and other personal information were never risked. We appreciate you being a Princeton customer. Sincerely,
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