One of the most popular freelance websites in the world Elance, suffered a security breach today Friday July 17, 2009. All members of the popular website, providers as well as buyers received an email from Elance admins that read as follows.

Dear [User],

We recently learned that certain Elance user information was accessed without authorization, including potentially yours. The data accessed was contact information — specifically name, email address, telephone number, city location and Elance login information (passwords were protected with encryption). This incident did NOT involve any credit card, bank account, social security or tax ID numbers.

We have remedied the cause of the breach and are working with appropriate authorities. We have also implemented additional security measures and have strengthened password requirements to protect all of our users.

We sincerely regret any inconvenience or disruption this may cause.

Thank you for your understanding,

Michael Culver

Vice President

Elance

Understandably, this is both security and privacy issue, and a Elance’s users are more than likely to be extremely concerned about this event. Elance was completely professional in their handling of the matter and should be commended. Even though they kept some of the details of the entire incident to themselves. Once again the hackers are getting better at what they do, and we are forced to find even greater security for our websites.

GemGfx is also a member of Elance and we transact a considerable bit of business there. Some of our best customers were found on Elance and we feel a bit violated by this incident. Thanks to Elance for a job well done in stopping the event when they did and we hope that they get those responsible.

GemGfx Admin

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