Your e-commerce site is humming right along.
New customers arrive daily, products hit the mail, profits roll in.
For several companies during the past year, that nightmare scenario has been a frightful reality. Both America Online and search service RealNames reported last year that hackers may have collected members' credit card numbers. The best advice is to assess the problem quickly and let your customers know as soon as possible that there may be a security breach. When a hacker appeared to have made it through the site's security systems just before last Christmas, the company quickly issued a letter to its customers acknowledging the possible infiltration and telling them that they would receive more information as soon as it was available. When you're playing with other people's money, it pays to play it safe.