Zappos victim of cyber attack

Posted by Linda Curtis On Monday, January 16th 2012 in Technology

Zappos.com, a popular online shoe site, was the target of cyber attackers who managed to gain access to the company's internal network using one of the website’s servers. Chief Executive Tony Hsie broke the news to his employees on Sunday. He added that the company was working with the law enforcement in order to undergo "an exhaustive investigation". Apparently credit card numbers and other payment data were not compromised.

"We've spent over 12 years building our reputation, brand, and trust with our customers. It's painful to see us take so many steps back due to a single incident," Hsieh said in a second email he sent to the customers. "Over the next day or so, we will be training everyone on the specifics of how to best help our customers through their password change process now that their passwords have been reset and expired. We need all hands on deck to help get through this."

In the email he sent to the customers, Zappos announced that personal information may have been compromised. The company is going to notify its 24 million customers and aid them in dealing with the cyber attack.

"In order to service as many customer inquiries as possible, we will be asking all employees at our headquarters, regardless of department, to help with assisting customers," Hsieh said. "We have made the hard decision to temporarily turn off our phones and direct customers to contact us by email because our phone systems simply aren't capable of handling so much volume."