Illegal use of data from ProZ.com profile

A Russian gang called Phreak has created an online tool that extracts personal details from CVs posted onto sites including Monster.com, AOL Jobs, Ajcjobs.com, Careerbuilder.com, Careermag.com, Computerjobs.com, Hotjobs.com, Jobcontrolcenter.com, Jobvertise.com and Militaryhire.com. As a result the personal information (names, email addresses, home addresses and current employers) on hundreds of thousands of jobseakers has been placed at risk, according to net security firm PrevX.

Phreak has begun selling its "identity harvesting services" to fraudsters, charging $600 for data that might be applied to targeted phishing attacks, ID fraud or other nefarious purposes. Would-be clients are able to contact the gang on ICQ. For a fee the gang will filter its database for entries that refer to a particular country or particular employer.

Michele Johnson wrote:

It's interesting to compare the response of proz.com and elance (about half the size of proz.com, if my research is correct) to the security breach. At proz.com, the issue has been addressed in a forum, but there certainly has not been email communication with affected parties (IMO every single user of the site), no password changes have been forced as of yet, there is no indication of communication with industry watchdogs, no mention of working with 3rd party auditors, no mention of working with law enforcement, no security alert, and everyone is still pretty much up in the air as to whether this has been resolved. I can see how some people think this is not being handled seriously or professionally.

In comparison, this is the kind of security alert I would have expected to see in a very public place at proz.com by now:

http://www.elance.com/p/trust/account_security.html
What is Elance doing about it?
We have taken a ‘drop-everything’ approach to this security breach in an effort to react as swiftly and decisively as possible. Here’s what we’ve done so far:

* Openly communicated with all affected parties via email, the Elance blog, our Twitter feed, and via our Trust & Safety center on Elance.com to alert all parties of the security breach
* Strengthened our password requirements and forced password changes to ensure that all Elance users have their accounts protected by “strong” passwords
* Communicated openly with TRUSTe who act as an industry watch-dog for security breaches online to validate our response to this
* Closed the recently identified security hole by releasing updated code on Elance
* Collaborated with our 3rd party security audit service to ensure that they now can identify this particular security hole in all cases
* Worked with authorities to take down sites that are unlawfully exposing any user information

As per the title of this request, note that the email address associated with your account is the one entered in your Profile Updater, [email protected].

However, if you changed this email address since you created your account at ProZ.com, I am afraid we do not have access to old information when it has been updated.

Hope this explains.

If this does not answer your request, please re-open this support request and specify your request in detail and I'll be happy to help.

ViktoriaG wrote:

...or someone is waiting for this thread to dry out?

Siegfried Armbruster wrote:

This is really becoming interesting, not only because only very few members of PROZ seem to find this topic interesting.

But for me, the much more interesting aspect is how Proz staff and management handle the problem and how they communicate their actions to their members.

Siegfried Armbruster wrote:

This is really becoming interesting, not only because only very few members of PROZ seem to find this topic interesting. But for me, the much more interesting aspect is how Proz staff and management handle the problem and how they communicate their actions to their members.
Siegfried

Siegfried Armbruster wrote:

This is really becoming interesting, not only because only very few members of PROZ seem to find this topic interesting.

Aniello Scognamiglio wrote:

It takes a lot of time to find the "right" words or to admit that nothing has changed so far.

Rachel Fell wrote:

I rather wonder whether there aren't other sites of that type with our/people's info. ...?