A few days ago, Security Fix heard from a reader who received a breach notification so casual in tone that he asked me to verify whether it was for real. Sure enough, Burlington, Mass.-based database application company Alpha Software Inc. recently told customers that a data breach had exposed their payment information. That fact was confirmed by similarly confused users posting to the company’s online forum. The e-mail notice to affected customers reads: November 9, 2009 Dear Customer, We have been informed that there has been a security breach at the Internet Service Provider where our web site is hosted. This may have resulted in your credit card information being compromised. While it is entirely possible that your credit card information has not been stolen, in the interests of caution, we recommend that you contact your credit card provider to discuss what steps, if any, they recommend. Going forward, we
