The Alabama Baptist website safe after security breach causes spam

The Alabama Baptist website safe after security breach causes spam

A hacker recently accessed The Alabama Baptist website and used it in an e-mail spam campaign linked to Capital One. The e-mail campaign attempted to acquire credit card and other sensitive information, which is known as a phishing scheme.

The issue was noticed almost immediately and resolved quickly, said Bob Terry, president and editor of The Alabama Baptist. The website is safe and available for use, he confirmed.

“We have always taken steps to ensure tight security measures with our website and are disappointed this happened,” Terry said. “We are sorry for any confusion or problems it caused and appreciate the many people who alerted us to the issue.

“We’ve all received these scam e-mails noting a trusted business’s name in our inboxes from time to time, but we did not want our name attached to such a scheme,” he said. “We acted immediately to determine how our site was targeted and how the security was breached.”  

The paper’s web developer, Birmingham-based Dirextion, and Internet provider, Gadsden-based Network Solutions, are both working to put extra measures in place to ensure it does not happen again.

And while the current site’s security levels have been re-evaluated and tightened, The Alabama Baptist will be rolling out an upgraded version of the website in August, which will have the latest security measures in place.

Be sure to continue using www.thealabamabaptist.org to read about what Baptists are doing in Alabama and around the world, to find archives of articles printed in the paper over the past decade and as a resource for breaking news, subscribing online and learning about the local church edition. (TAB)