IMPORTANT! Cyber-attack on SFI--what you need to do

To: All SFI Affiliates
From: Gery Carson, SFI President

As most of you know, SFI has been growing exponentially over the last couple years. Growth and success is great, but in today’s world, it now attracts cyber-crooks with very sophisticated methods. Today I must report that SFI has been the victim of such a cyber-attack.

As our partners, we wanted to get you fully up to date as soon as possible. Here are the facts as we know them. Please note that this is an ongoing investigation and we do not have the answer to every question.

Apparently, the hackers gained entrance to our databases earlier this month. When this was discovered late last week, from all we could tell, they were only probing. In response, we added the two new security layer--which were announced during the last few days. Today, however, we have discovered that it is more serious, that the criminals likely gained access to some credit card numbers, passwords, and more.

The two new security features may very well have closed whatever hole was used to gain access, but we are now working on adding additional layers of security and protection. We also are consulting experts in the field to make sure that SFI and TripleClicks are as secure as is humanly possible.

Unfortunately, even if the criminals have now been locked out, the information they gained access to earlier is in their hands. Therefore, it is very important that you take precautions to protect yourself from this information theft.

When major US retailer Target was hacked in December and had the credit card numbers of reportedly over 40 million customers stolen, customers were advised to:

1. Watch your credit card statement for charges you did not initiate.

2. Call your credit card company or bank about replacing the card (the phone number to call should be located on the back of your card).

3. Consider getting identity protection service. Most major credit cards have a form of this already which is usually provided free of charge, but you may want to consider the services of companies such as www.lifelock.com or www.Mosaic-idservices.com--that may be able to provide more extensive security. Note that we actually have been working with Mosaic to provide their services to all SFI affiliates.

For a more information on what to do when your credit card number gets stolen, see:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/19/technology/security/target-credit-card/

I want to point out that any credit card we had on file that has not been used for a TripleClicks purchase in the last 120 days should not be at risk because 120 days is the longest they are retained by us (they are erased).

Also, we do not store the 3- or 4-digit security numbers located on the back side of the credit cards, so those numbers were not stolen. Most sites require this security number when using a credit card.

We are incredibly disappointed that this has happened and we are doing everything we can to make certain it never happens again. And of course we will be diligently working with all of our affected affiliates and customers to mitigate any impact.

We are also completely committed to working with authorities--including the FBI that I spoke with just minutes ago--to bring anyone involved to justice.

To help ensure that the site is completely secured, we are requiring that you set up a new password. Please take this opportunity to create a good strong one! This is one of best ways to protect your SFI account and all of your online accounts.

You may also experience some error messages and other issues for a few days. We understand this is a major disruption and inconvenience for our affiliates, but it is necessary while we go through every inch of the site to shore up any remaining potential weak points.

As we go through this process, we will continue to post updates so that you know exactly what the current status is and any steps that you should be taking.

Important: We ask that you not submit any tickets about this matter at this time as it will only slow us down and delay getting everything back in order. Instead, watch for our emails and posts on Facebook, Twitter, news.sfimg.com, and the SFI Forum.

Once again, it’s so very disappointing to have had this happen, but we will come out of this a stronger company for it. All of us, together, we have built something very special with SFI and we will all get though this together. Thank you for your understanding and support.

I will be in touch with further updates soon.

Gery Carson
SFI President

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SFI
8251 Northwoods Drive, Suite 200
Lincoln, NE 68505 USA
Ph 402-434-8480, Fax 402-434-8483

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