Gawker Media Hacked (1.25 Million Accounts At Risk)

[FancySkunk]

Gawker Media, the parent company for the following websites has been massively hacked. Anyone with accounts on Gawker.com, Fleshbot, Deadspin, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, io9, Kotaku, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Gawker.tv, or Cityfile is at severe risk of having been hacked.

This weekend, Gawker Media's servers were hacked, leaving many user accounts and their corresponding passwords vulnerable. Nearly 1.25 million accounts, including more than 500,000 user e-mails and more than 185,000 decrypted passwords, were posted to the Pirate Bay. Right now, some hackers appear to be using those usernames and passwords to tweet about Acai Berries.

If you have accounts on any of the sites mentioned above, check your username and e-mail address against the database using the tool found here

If your username or e-mail address returns a match, you are urged to change your password on any and all sites that you use to prevent anyone from getting into your other accounts.

As a side note, furaffinity.net is currently offline because one of their admins' information was part of this. If you have a furaffinity account, but not an account with a Gawker media website, you are safe. Furaffinity ownership has assured users that admins do not have access to user passwords. The site has only been taken offline to prevent anyone from altering site code.

[Blue Braixen]

Geez. Why do people like to cause so much trouble for others? That's just terrible.

[Vespier Leo]

To do something like this, that effects so many people, is contemptable beyond words. The things responceable for this ( I refuse to call them people) Have erned themselves a new low in my regard.

[NickCole]

Thanks for the heads up, Fancy~

For a sec, I thought my FA account was screwed. > 3> And no wonder the site was down. Hope they get it solved. D:

[ReCreate]

I don't really think those passwords would be at such a risk as it is made to seem, as they all must be hashes in databases.(as that's how passwords are usually stored, i think) You can't do much with hashes. Only one specific person who may be targeted could be at risk, because they would have to attempt to reverse the hash.(which depending on the hashing algorithm used and length/complexity of the password, could even be impossible)

Either way, I don't have an account in any of those sites. So i'm fine.

[FancySkunk]

I don't really think those passwords would be at such a risk as it is made to seem, as they all must be hashes in databases.(as that's how passwords are usually stored, i think) You can't do much with hashes. Only one specific person who may be targeted could be at risk, because they would have to attempt to reverse the hash.(which depending on the hashing algorithm used, could even be impossible)

The article reports 185,000 unencrypted passwords were part of the torrent. If they got that many unencrypted, I'm sure that they have an idea of what the method is.

[ReCreate]

So only a small portion of the passwords were not hashes. And encryption and hashing is entierley different. A hash is something generated from a(for example) string such as "ilikepie", the(SHA1) hash of this would be 6b0970707ebefd0e3742975b410efe12e2ed5894. It is irreversible. But the string "ilikepie" will always generate the given hash.(Note: "ilikepie" was random, it is not from the database, nor is the hash, i generated the hash myself) Meaning that the rest of the passwords are likely not going to be bothered with.(unless of course, if they target a specific person)

[ReCreate]

Woah nevermind, found it on the pirate bay, whoever had an account there sure is in deep I'm a loaf of bread with no raisins.

[Sleet]

Hmm, I was banned from Kotaku so hopefully I'm not affected. 'Cause I don't think I can do anything now.

[Psykeout]

Hmm, I was banned from Kotaku so hopefully I'm not affected. 'Cause I don't think I can do anything now.

ooooooOOOOOoooooooooooooooo... sleet was bad... :3


anyway, sucks to the hackers. (not a typo)

[Private Elliot]

Oh Lordy.

[Liam]

Lol, they haven't got my password even though I'm on io9, Kotaku and Jalopnik.

But to be frank, whoever chooses a variation of 123456 or password as their password for public sites AND for their bank account or worse just had it coming.

[Zander]

considering my password is 36 letters/numbers long, i think mine would be almost impossible x3

i'm not even on those sites, so meh :o

[ReCreate]

It actually depends on the complexity of the password. Not the length.

[Dubiousity]

Feel bad for those who get hacked, fortunately I don't have an account on any of those sites.

[Zander]

It actually depends on the complexity of the password. Not the length.

its almost completely random x3

[dalonewolf25]

Hmm, I was banned from Kotaku so hopefully I'm not affected. 'Cause I don't think I can do anything now.

Did you ever put up any info there? If so, couldn't they look at that?

[ReCreate]

It actually depends on the complexity of the password. Not the length.

its almost completely random x3

Is it mixed case? With symbols, numbers? Does it not form any word or phrase whatsoever?

[Dissension]

Do not provide or attempt to obtain password information of any kind.