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Verizon Exposes the Wrong 1,200 Email Addresses

Posted by timothy on from the but-this-was-the-before-picture dept.

netbuzz writes "If you're going to market your expertise by inviting 1,200 IT professionals to a seminar about securing data and protecting personal information, it's probably a good idea to protect the personal information of those you invite. On Tuesday, Verizon forgot that advice and blasted each of the 1,200 email addresses to everyone on the list ... and they did it 17 times."

6 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Blunder by mfh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Whenever email scripts have too many recipients, they do tend to refresh and try again, which can cause dupes. These addresses were likely supposed to be in the BCC field, or nonexistent (duh). So it was a mistake.

    That's an embarassing blunder, to hold a seminar on keeping private info secure and then spamming who is attending the seminar. I wonder how much time they will spend on that blunder, explaining how it can happen to anyone, even the mighty Verizon, but this foolishness will not strengthen Verizon's sales pitch.

    Spammers attend these conferences. Now spammers have known email addresses of everyone there.

    This would only make a difference if spammers made money based on sending targeted email. They don't. They make money based on volume of addresses when a shady merchant pays them. So maybe they could make $25 on this list?

    Apart from making one person in Verizon look stupid, this also enforces the theory that it only takes one idiot to... the whole internet.

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
    1. Re:Blunder by Spacepup · · Score: 5, Funny

      Spammers attend these conferences. Now spammers have known email addresses of everyone there.

      If it's just spammers attending, then they only got the email addresses of other spammers. The spammers can spam themselves all they want for all I care.

    2. Re:Blunder by omega_dk · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That would be insightful, if it were not so clearly wrong. Plenty of spammers target specific individuals; see http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid182_gci1259674,00.html for a specific example. Now, one could argue that targeting IT professionals would be an exercise in futility. Would you bet your livelihood on it? Would you bet access (possibly high-trust access, depending on how high up this IT professional is) to your company's network on it?

      Because that's what's at stake. It's not a question of sending email selling \/|agra to these people. It's a question of a very specific, highly targeted spam operation with the express purpose of getting access to the networks of these specific individuals, in the hopes that they can provide the access the infiltrator would want to the company as a whole.

      Now, I am not saying that this is a big deal; it's not like these emails wouldn't have been available from some other source than this email list. However, I will say that by completely dismissing an entire segment of spam email, that of targeted emails to specific individuals, you are unnecessarily lulling both yourself and anyone who reads your comment into a false sense of security. Highly targeted spam is a real risk; don't discount it as a very real attack vector. You must be ever vigilant, and I don't think you can be with that kind of attitude.

      --
      Just because you don't like the truth, does not make it false.
    3. Re:Blunder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      you showed him dude, I certainly wouldn't want to be him because I would be reeling from that burn

  2. Verizon responds by MarkGriz · · Score: 5, Funny

    "We just wanted to make sure you could hear us now"

    --
    Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
  3. Re:Title is Misleading by flyingsquid · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's not that Verizon exposed "the wrong" 1200 emails, it's that Verizon exposed any email addresses at all.

    While I agree that the email slip-up was pretty bad, I was more concerned about some of the other sensitive information that Verizon publicized. In addition to those 1200 emails, Verizon also emailed other sensitive information including:

    1.the secret herbs and spices that go into KFC's chicken

    2. the combination to the door of the Bat Cave

    3.The location of Dick Cheney's 'undisclosed location'

    4. The chemical composition of Kryptonite

    5. The burial site of Jimmy Hoffa

    6. the nuclear launch codes for U.S. Trident nuclear missile submarines

    7. the full name, post office box address, and social security number of the The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly's Man with No Name

    8. the address and repository information for that government warehouse that contains the Ark of the Covenant (it's on rack 12, shelf 7, box 336)