Vivint

In a day and age when people feel unsafe in the world in general, many of us are attempting to find alternative safeguards such as advanced home security companies, systems, and often pricey monitoring packages to protect our loved ones and homes from some of the dangers we face today. Home security companies offer a variety of service package contracts that include features such as:

• Security Cameras
• Security Alarm Monitoring
• Mobile Access
• Home Automation
• 100 % Wireless
• Video Doorbell
• Smart Thermostat
• Automated Door Locks

Sounds great, right? Paying a monthly fee to keep your family and home safe and secure is an expense people typically feel is well worth the money and certainly expect it to be a deterrent to criminals trying to gain access to your home. What you wouldn’t expect from the very security company you hire to protect you is for them instead to expose your security pass code to strangers. But that is just what happened to this customer named Stephen, who had contracted with Vivint for home security. The problem that occurred here is that the letter below was sent to another customer, not Stephen, who never requested a security pass code change. And to make matters worse, the person who received this letter for Stephen from Vivint had received two prior letters exposing other customer’s security pass codes in the same manner. Needless to say, the customer who received these security pass code change letters wants to cancel his service contract with Vivint, but it would appear that getting out of a Vivint contract is no easy task. So much so that there is even a site detailing how to get out of a Vivint contract and encouraging customers to come together to fight the company by reporting them to the FTC and Better Business Bureau among other things. As it stands for the customer who received other customer's security pass code letters, he is left wondering how many other people this is happening to and whether his personal account information is being shared with other people. Below is one of the letters the wrong Vivint customer received by email on or about July 27, 2016. This one in particular is the one that was meant for Stephen:

Dear Stephen, Thank you for contacting Vivint! We are very grateful for this opportunity to serve you and look forward to many more years providing quality alarm monitoring service for you, your loved ones, and your property. Per your request, we have updated the security pass code on your account to reflect the following: xxxxx Please treat this pass code as you would any other important "pin number" or "code access" number protecting your financial accounts and valuables. It is the only pass code that you or an authorized user of your alarm system can use to cancel an accidental alarm activation, place your account on test, or obtain monitoring or billing account information. Once again, we appreciate your business and the confidence you have placed in us to provide the best-monitored alarm service in the industry. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. For your reference, your Service Number is: XXXXXX Sincerely, Vivint Customer Care 800.216.5232 support@vivint.com

For Vivint to make this type of security breach blunder once is bad enough, but the fact that one of their customers received letters regarding the pass code of other customer's accounts multiple times should cause great concern. As of the reporting of this incident Vivint has made no public statement regarding this breach in security to its customers.