Thursday, September 30, 2010

Letter Sent to AFTRA Legal

Dear Ms. Tarlow,

I am a AFTRA member, and received the notice about the security breach on the AFTRA web site. In addition to being an actor, I run http://www.theyact.com, a network of web properties of actor resources. Some questions have come up regarding this breach and violation of members' personal information, including social security numbers and credit card information. Please answer, or obtain and forward to me answers, to the following questions for on the record public publication:

1) Was member information unencrypted on the web server?
2) Why was the information of members who had joined over 1 year ago still retained on the server long after its use in the joining process?
3) What concrete action is AFTRA taking to prevent this from happening again?
4) What measures is AFTRA taking to secure member information across the entire organization?
5) What is the timeframe for securing member information? By what date will security be fully in place?
7) What is AFTRA doing to help the affected members mediate the damage
this breach may take on their lives?
6) Are there any personnel changes that will be happening as a result
of this breach?

Thank you in advance for your prompt (within 24 hrs) reply,
David August

 

Update October 2: a boiler-plate deferral due to the on-going investigation is the only reply made. It seems actors are on their own.

Update October 4: Ms. Tarlow writes that AFTRA has taken steps to "...advise members of the situation and provide them with resources and counsel to assist them with their security concerns." Since I am one of the AFTRA members, it seems the single email sent last week is the extent of their efforts at this point.

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this posted by David August at 1:47 AM - 0 comments -  

AFTRA Compromised Actors' SSNs and Credit Card Info

AFTRA sent this email to many members Wednesday:

Please be advised that on Sept. 29, AFTRA learned that computer hackers unlawfully accessed the Join Online portion of the AFTRA website at AFTRA.com. The hackers either stole or attempted to steal names, contact information, Social Security and credit card numbers from individuals who joined AFTRA online.

I suggest that all AFTRA actors should place a fraud alert on themselves with the credit bureaus (experian equifax transunion) and consider canceling, or changing the number of, the credit card used to join AFTRA. Anyone have any ideas on what AFTRA should do about this? Please leave a comment.

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this posted by David August at 1:07 AM - 0 comments -  

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Unions OK proposals for upcoming talks

During its national board meeting via bicoastal videoconference, the joint national board of SAG and AFTRA approved the package of proposals for their upcoming TV-theatrical negotiations with employers

(from Hollywood Reporter).

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this posted by David August at 9:45 PM - 0 comments -