The TechSoup Web site outage and its impact on you

All of TechSoup Web sites have been completely restored, including:

• TechSoup.org
• TechSoupStock.org
• Compumentor.org
• TechFinder.org

The instability detected was due to a SQL Injection attack that took place in the morning of Wednesday, September 24th. In response, we disabled our Web sites. These types of attacks are known to exploit website vulnerabilities with the intent of distributing viruses and malware. This is similar to the issues we experienced in August.

A very small number of visitors who came to our site on the morning of Wednesday, September 24 may have been impacted.

If you visited any of the Web sites listed above between 7:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. (PST) September 24, we highly recommend you take the following steps:

• Make sure your anti-virus software definitions are up-to-date.
• Run a scan of your hard drive to ensure no viruses or malware show up and follow the instructions to quarantine them.
• Review the information at http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ about managing viruses.
• Update your operating system and other software with the latest security patches. While most software will alert you of any updates automatically, you should run Windows Update on Windows, Software Update on Mac OS X, and for any other applications that you frequently use. For many applications, look in the "Help" menu for information on updates. Check the software documentation if you cannot find that information.

We also want to take this opportunity to remind all of our customers and visitors to practice "best practices" with regard to protecting your online identity and data. Take the time necessary to secure your information by changing the passwords on your online accounts. "Best practices" recommend that you change your passwords regularly (at least once a month) to keep your system information secure.

We continue to take your security, very seriously. If we can answer any questions, please write to us at communications@techsoup.org or call us at 1-800-659-3579, extension 700. Our customer service team is available to serve you Monday-Friday, from 8:00AM to 5:00PM (PST).

We apologize for any inconvenience this recent outage caused and thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,
Marnie Webb
Co-CEO