Wednesday, October 23, 2002

Security?

Is anyone else bothered by the message that STC headquarters sent out on 10/23, with the Subject: "STC 2003 Dues Renewal"? Its text was simple enough:

Dear XXX XXXXXX,

This year you've enjoyed the benefits of STC membership, including subscriptions to Intercom and Technical Communication, the STC Web site with its jobs database, chapter meetings, and our annual salary survey. Now it's time to renew, and STC has made doing so easier than ever.

Simply go to our quick and easy online renewal form at www.stc.org/renew.asp and log in using your member ID (#####) and password (!!!!!). In no time at all, you're ready to enjoy another year of STC!

Don't miss out--renew today! We look forward to providing you another year of STC benefits.

(Of course, the XXX..., ###..., and !!!... fields were customized to have your info in them.) I was totally surprised that they would send me my member number and password as plain text without warning me that they planned to do so.

Naturally, I went in and changed my password.

Am I the only one out here disturbed by this security issue?


comment [] 11:27:05 PM