Monster.Com Loses Millions MORE Job Seekers' Records

Monster.com has been hacked again, with possibly millions of customer records -- including names, phone numbers, e-mails, passwords and more -- stolen from its obviously poorly protected database. The company's handling of the news of the breach (the third in less than two years!) is as sloppy as its security.Job seekers flocking to Monster.com in search of jobs may be getting plenty of responses from phishers now that the employment search site has been hacked for the third time in less than two years.

The hackers may be sending e-mails (not the kind you want) to Monster's customers, but evidently the company won't. Despite the magnitude of the breach, Monster.com hasn't e-mailed its customers, preferring to post an alert on its Web site.

The company isn't saying how big the breach is, by the way, so I'm assuming, as I assume you would too, that it's not small. If Monster's letting everyone know their data is at risk, there's a good chance that everyone's data has been cmpromised.

In a bit of post-transition, transparent government irony, Monster.com hosts the USAJOBS site for government job listings; USAJOBS posted its own alert, although has yet to flag it on the site's home page.

Monster's handling of the breach news remains as sloppy as its security measures, only marginally better than when the company suffered a Trojan infestation in 2007.

Telling customers that they "may soon be required to change your password upon logging onto the site" and recommending that they "proactively change your password yourself as an added precaution" seems to be about as far as the company is willing to go to inform its users about the breach.

And to find even that paltry bit of advice, users have to click the not terrifically prominent security alert box on Monster's pages.

Note to hacked company's marketing people and especially its top management: when it happens let people know about it in BOLDFACE ALL CAPS. That's proactive.

Especially if it's not the first or even the second time you've lost customer data.

In the case of Monster.com, one fears, this is just the latest breach, probably not the last.