The Register Email Address Blunder 70
First time accepted submitter Tim99 writes "This morning I got an email from The Register informing me that they have sent 3,521 of their readers the names and e-mail addresses of 46,000 other readers. Considering their frequent rants about security this has got to be a major FAIL."
El Reg writes: "Obviously, this was an error. The two-stage send process that is the norm for all of our mailers was over-looked because someone was in a hurry."
another reason to always use disposable addresse (Score:5, Informative)
Well, it seems likely that some register users will be getting a lot of spam soon. Even if the list didn't get sent directly to a spammer it might have gone to someone who wants to teach the Register an important lesson.
I always use disposable addresses when signing up for anything, and even give them to my friends. I've had one Linux forum make my address publicly visible. I've had multiple vendors send out things to lists with CC information in plain sight. I've had friends who had their accounts hacked and their contact information harvested. Always using disposable addresses lets you cut off just the problem rather than having to abandon an entire e-mail account (which I had to do years ago when it suddenly started receiving hundreds of e-mails a day, so much that my normal e-mail was being rejected because my "mailbox was full")..
I use a great free service from Spamgourmet.com. I have no relationship with them other than being a satisfied user for many years. As far as I know my actual e-mail (which I obviously had to give to them for forwarding) has never been compromised or leaked and I've never received any form of junk mail from them. They are not the only such option, but whichever you choose to use you should definitely use one if you want to protect yourself from spam and worse.