Gawker data breach: 1.2M accounts exposed
Severity: high · Patch status: no-fix-needed · Since 2013-12-04
In December 2010, Gawker was attacked by the hacker collective "Gnosis" in retaliation for what was reported to be a feud between Gawker and 4Chan. Information about Gawkers 1.3M users was published along with the data from Gawker's other web presences including Gizmodo and Lifehacker. Due to the prevalence of password reuse, many victims of the breach then had their Twitter accounts compromised to send Acai berry spam. Exposed data: email addresses, passwords, usernames. The breach dates from Dec 11, 2010; Have I Been Pwned loaded it on Dec 4, 2013.
What to do
- If you had a Gawker account, change its password and the password of any other account that reused it.
- Turn on multi-factor authentication wherever it is offered.
- Check whether your addresses are in this breach at https://haveibeenpwned.com.
- Expect targeted phishing that quotes the leaked details; verify any unexpected contact out of band.
Sources
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