Like many this morning, I logged in to my email to find an urgent note from Zappos advising me to change my passwords after a security. As much as I let out some audible groans when I saw that note, I was very glad to see them being proactive in their response, and keeping their reputation as great customer stewards in tact.
As I’ve written before, it’s key to get out early when a problem like this occurs and communicate well with those affected. Zappos did a great job in sending out a well-crafted and informative response soon after learning about the breach, and before the news media did.
As consumers, we are reminded again about the importance of password security, and why we shouldn’t re-use our passwords on multiple sites. If you change your passwords on different sites, that means that you only have one password to change when things like this happen, rather than having to change them on every website that you use. If you would like some advice on creating good-quality passwords, check out this post that I wrote for NPowerNW.