Zero Identity Theft

Credit Card Number Breach At Nikon

Nikon is not the first major company that suffers security breach, and certainly will not be the last.

Nikon Inc. warned subscribers to its Nikon World magazine to cancel their credit cards after the company learned sensitive consumer information had been exposed on the subscription sign-up page of the magazine's Web site.

In a statement, Nikon said personal information of Nikon World subscribers was disclosed on Tuesday over a nine-hour period through the magazine's online-subscription Web site. Nine new subscribers were able to access the personal information of 3,235 subscribers who had signed up since January 1, 2006, the company said. Nikon blamed the security breach on an outside vendor's system failure.

"At present, we are in the process of notifying all those customers who may have been affected to make certain they are aware of the situation, take action to protect themselves and their confidential information, as well as to be a resource for any questions they may have,'' the statement said.

The security breach was discovered by a consumer who was attempting to subscribe to the quarterly magazine online. Michael Nimmer, retail manager of Capitol Filmworks in Montgomery, Ala., said he discovered the information had been exposed when a shop employee attempted to submit a subscription to the quarterly magazine online. The employee found numerous pages of customers' home addresses, telephone numbers, credit-card numbers and expiration dates by clicking on a Web link included in an automated subscription status e-mail from Nikon World. The data were removed from the site after Mr. Nimmer alerted the company.

"That just can't happen. With ID theft, with all the theft of personal data, you just can't make mistakes like this,'' Mr. Nimmer said. "Customers will leave you and go to other places.''