The NATS breach hits the mainstream press
 

Wonder how this is going to affect things - just as has been claimed, NATS backdoor hits the media.

Now, maybe we'll start to see investigations as to who was making the money off the breach.

"the violation so far appears to be limited to e-mail addresses, with an avalanche of spam e-mail hitting Web site customers' inboxes - including unique addresses created for joining specific porn sites. "

It's not super polite, but here's the whole article, because it's interesting.

http://www.dailynews.com/ci_7816784?source=rss_viewed

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WASHINGTON - A New Jersey company that helps run thousands of pornography Web sites acknowledged a major security breach Wednesday, sparking widespread concern in the adult-entertainment industry that consumers' personal data could be endangered.

According to industry chat boards that have been buzzing about the problem, the violation so far appears to be limited to e-mail addresses, with an avalanche of spam e-mail hitting Web site customers' inboxes - including unique addresses created for joining specific porn sites.

John Albright, owner of the Too Much Media Corp., said in a statement Wednesday that no credit-card information was affected by the October incident.

Officials with both Visa and MasterCard said they were unaware Wednesday of any problems in connection with the company.

"An investigation is under way as to the cause and level of the security breach," Albright said in the statement. "TMM intends to prosecute to the fullest extent possible anyone responsible for any breach of its servers and programs."

But many in the adult industry - based heavily in the San Fernando Valley - said the breach could unravel hard-fought attempts to change the longtime perception that the industry is shady.

"The adult industry has worked for a long time to become an industry that can be trusted with personal information," said Kathee Brewer, former editor of AVN Online, the trade journal of the digital adult-entertainment industry.

When customer information is leaked - even if it is only e-mail addresses - Brewer said, "consumers begin to back away because they don't trust the industry anymore. All it takes is one issue like this."

Phone calls and e-mails to Albright to discuss details of the breach were not returned this week.

It remains unclear how much information may have been accessed and how the incident began.

But industry insiders and companies that use Too Much Media Corp. software said they have been aware since October that some customer lists belonging to porn-site networks had been stolen. They estimated that the number of victims could be in the hundreds of thousands.

"You can imagine the backlash," said Ilan Michan, owner of Woodland Hills-based OC-3 Networks, a Web-hosting company that Michan said handles about 40percent of all adult-entertainment Web sites and first discovered the problem in October.

Michan said employees during a monthly security check noticed that the same IP address was repeatedly trying to access his software.

Michan said the company determined that someone had accessed the user name and password assigned to the Too Much Media software.

That program - known as NATS for Next-Generation Administration and Tracking Software - is primarily used by Internet porn-site networks to track activity on the hundreds of thousands of advertisers that send traffic to their Web pages.

Advertisers, known as affiliates, also use the software to check their own sales and traffic. About 500 affiliate networks - approximately one-third of the industry - use the software.

In his statement Wednesday, Albright did not address what steps the company took to inform people of the breach and possible loss of personal information, as it is required to do under New Jersey law.

"It's a big deal for them. A lot of people went with this software because it's supposed to be safe and secure. It makes the industry look bad," said Christian Amico, director of operations with Atlas Multimedia Inc., a San Fernando Valley firm that builds adult-entertainment Web sites.

While there have been no reports of identity theft, many said the fact that names, e-mail addresses and the types of fetishes people enjoy might be floating around the Internet is worrisome.

"Consumer confidence is shot because of this," said Jason Tucker, president of San Fernando Valley-based Falcon Foto, which he described as the "world's largest erotic library."

"The industry has worked so hard in the last five years alone to make people understand that this is a real business and we operate like a real business," Tucker said.

"When something like this happens, consumer confidence in the adult business drops and we're all going to suffer because of it."

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I never really gave much thought to the consumers. Thankfully, their cc data isn't included in NATS.

What kills me is that they didn't notify anyone when this breach was detected months ago.

The Slashdot gang were talking about it the other day. Interesting to read how our industry is perceived by these not in it.

I know I don't get out much & I'm happy with my current hosting, but who the hell is this that supposedly hosts 40% of us?

The idiot that wrote that piece is busy spreading misinformation. You can find him being roasted on the other board while at the same time lapping up all the attention.

My guess is the company that the sigwhore is being payed by to stir up the misinformation.

Youll remember them from this years unfounded mudslinging toward Lisa Sparxxx.

That was the idiot regarding Lisa Sparxxxx? Why doesn't that surprise me.

Is that "Slashdot" board a retard hangour or something?

They seem to be a bunch of "stab in the dark" type philosophy limp cocks believing their views are fact.

I have to laugh at things like..

I bet this brainless inbred believes London is always foggy and we all drink tea. |jester|

No but if you look at the chronology this hosting company broke the news and said that they have been sitting on it under threat of a lawsuit.

Next thing you know this moron is running their banner in his sig and stalking Albright like my ex stalker Confucy. Lot of things in this stink. The way TMM handled it and the way this paperboy is spreading mistrust with surfers by spreading misinformation.

My guess is someone is paying for a little payback. You would be surprised to learn how little sigwhores in the past have been paid to spread misinformation.

Large egos - tiny dicks.

If you have any doubt just look at how they dissected Lisa and was going to have her thrown in jail etc etc.

Lisa is doing fine last time I spoke to her but if you noticed the loud mouthed bashers in that event like Mike Hawk have gone totally silent.

And remember Mike had undisputable video proof that she was a thief.

Misinformation like that in some cases can cost people a lot of money.
I think John will be spending a lot of unexpected legal fees from all of this.

All while the hosting company where 40% of us host.... which I hadnt heard of until a few years ago - sits back and enjoys the payback.

Just some of my thoughts. Along with the lack of anyone saying who those programs were that were spamming these members lists and how someones mailing history has been left out of this so far.

Bottom line for me is that I refuse to have a litegous business partner and this episode has certainly proven that I do have one currently.

Yeah, and it turns out you can't believe everything you read about Paris either.

One April, a friend of Vernon Duke's, inspired by his famous song "April in Paris," decided to spend the month there. The weather was terrible.
Upon his return, the traveler complained at great length about his disappointing trip. "Whatever made you go to Paris in April?" Duke asked. "The weather is always terrible then." "I went because of your song!" the friend cried. "Ah," the composer replied apologetically, "well we really meant May, but the rhythm required two syllables."


Back on topic now... I'll be more worried about any backlash affecting signups when I see the "members cc numbers stolen" story reported on Faux News or CNN. Until then, the story is mostly being read by those who think/believe/know they don't have to pay for porn. So no lost orders there I think.


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Read what mister Albright of TMM says.

So when you know hackers are gaining access to the private info of 1000's of people this is a low severity of a breach.

Thats a companany I would love to trust.

I hope the little trust our surfers had in buying porn online will stay.

Whole story
http://www.xbiz.com/news/88230

A lot of this stuff is becoming urban legend. TMM messed up and have admitted that, and have admitted they handled it badly. But a lot of fiction and false supposition has been heaped on the basic story.

Exactly what I was going to ask.

I only speak the truth. And Im a client

I dont give a fuck what John takes exception to.
2 months is way beyond acceptable.

Mike Hawk is an idiot for starting that thread and saying all those things he said. I remember it and it was not cool at all.

Yeah, that whole thing was so fucked from the beginning, the way they refused to name names, but implied it was one of 12 girls and just let names upon names be trashed like no tomorrow was incredibly fucked and totally uncalled for. And then to say we have proof and yet.... no proof existed.

There was another thread a month or so ago where it was said someone in the biz was shooting minors but pulled the old "I know who, but I am not telling you" BS where again too many names were dragged though the shit pile.

This BS is one of the reasons why we get no respect from the mainstream world, all the BS Drama.

I would be VERY surprised if anyone was paying minusonebit.

The guy is highly unstable and as soon as people stop paying attention to him he will be back with a new 'cause'

Just my 2 cents.

While I think minusonebit has done a great job getting the fact that NATS fucked up out to the webmasters, I think he has gone way to far. Keeping their company in the forefront for us webmasters is fine, but there is a line and I think he crossed it. I think we all got the point that TMM fucked up.

The guy reminds me of a douchbag :)