Play.Com Data Compromised

Tweet

If you’re a Play.Com customer, you might want to make sure your email spam filter is working. The company reports that email addresses may have been stolen from its records.

Music, video and video game retailer Play.Com warns that customer email addresses may have been compromised, as evident by reports of spam being received on addresses registered with their system. Play.Com CEO John Perkins denies any fault, though, and points out their outsourced marketing team for the breach.

On Sunday 20 March some customers reported receiving a spam e-mail to e-mail addresses they only use for Play.com. We believe this issue may be related to some irregular activity that was identified in December 2010 at our e-mail service provider, Silverpop.

Silverpop says its servers were compromised mid 2010, but was able to handle the attack. The company does not confirm whether Play.Com’s data was part of the information compromised, due to client confidentiality. However, Play.Com seems to point toward this possibility.

While Play.Com uses strict standards and security measures, we can only argue that your security, like a chain, is only as strong as its weakest link. Even if your onboard systems are secure, your clients, personnel or outsourced teams might still be compromised, which means you will need to ensure data is safe from prying eyes.