Monster gets proactive on phishing

NEW DELHI, INDIA: After the recent hacking of its database, Monster has got proactive on phishing, by issuing an advisory note to its consumers about the incident. The website has also enlisted the ways of identifying fraudulent mails for the benefit of users.

In an email communiqué to all of its consumers, Sal Iannuzzi, chairman and CEO of Monster Worldwide said that protecting the job seekers who use the website is a top priority.

“We value the trust you place in Monster. Regrettably, opportunistic criminals are increasingly using the Internet for illegitimate purposes. As is the case with many companies that maintain large databases of information, Monster is from time to time subject to attempts to illegally extract information from its database,” he said.

“As you may be aware, the Monster resume database was recently the target of malicious activity that involved the illegal downloading of information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses for some of our job seekers with resumes posted on Monster sites. Monster responded to this specific incident by conducting a comprehensive review of internal processes and procedures, notified those job seekers that their contact records had been downloaded illegally, and shut down a rogue server that was hosting these records,” said Iannuzzi.

The Monster CEO accepted the fact that the recent incident is not the first time Monster's database has been the target of criminal activity.

“Due to the significant amount of uncertainty in determining which individual job seekers may have been impacted, Monster felt that it was in your best interest to take the precautionary steps of reaching out to you and all Monster job seekers regarding this issue. Monster believes illegally downloaded contact information may be used to lure job seekers into opening a "phishing" email that attempts to acquire financial information or lure job seekers into fraudulent financial transactions. This has been the case in similar attacks on other websites,” he added.

“We want to inform you about preventive measures you can take to protect yourself from online fraud. While, no company can completely prevent unauthorized access to data, we believe that by reaching out to job seekers like you, the Company can help users better defend themselves against those who have attacked Monster as well as other databases,” Iannuzzi reiterated in the email advisory note.

“We are committed to maintaining an ongoing dialogue with all of our job seekers about Internet security and the steps Monster is taking to protect its job seekers. The Company has placed a security alert on Monster sites offering information to educate you about online fraud. This information can be found at http://help.monster.com/besafe. We have also included information on Internet safety and examples of fraudulent "phishing" emails at the bottom of this letter,” he said.

Iannuzzi enlisted the series of initiatives that Monster has taken, to enhance and to protect the information you have entrusted to us. “Some of these steps are being immediately implemented, while others will be put into place as appropriate,” he said.

“We believe these actions are the responsible steps to protect the trust you place in Monster. We are also working with Monster's hundreds of thousands of employer customers to ensure a safe and effective online job search. We will continue to share information with you about the enhancements we are making as we serve as your online career resource partner. We invite you to keep reading to learn more about how to use the Internet safely,” Iannuzzi added

The job portal had also sent across five major ‘phishing mail’ samples along with the advisory note, which guides the consumers on identifying such fraudulent emails.