Gawker Media Websites Shut Down After Hackers Hit User Database
- Posted on December 12, 2010 at 9:39pm by
Scott Baker
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NEW YORK (AP) — Gawker Media Inc. is urging subscribers to change their passwords because hackers have found their way into the company’s user databases.
The company said in a posting on its website Sunday that the passwords were encrypted, but simple ones could be vulnerable to attacks by hackers’ computers.
Gawker runs a series of blogs on the media, technology and other issues.
The company says it is embarrassed by the breach. It says passwords should be changed on other sites where the same password was used.
Gawker’s Gizmodo tech blog gained fame in May when it posted pictures of an iPhone prototype. The phone was lost by an Apple Inc. engineer in a Silicon Valley bar.
Messages were left Sunday for Gawker chief Nick Denton.
NYT:
Web sites belonging to Gawker Media abruptly stopped publishing on Sunday after mischief-making hackers gained access to the company’s servers.
People who had accounts on the flagship Gawker, Gizmodo, Jezebel and the company’s other Web sites were told to change their passwords because, it said in a statement, “our user databases appear to have been compromised.” Working anonymously, the hackers indicated that they had found more than 1.3 million user names and passwords, though it was unclear whether all of the data had been decrypted.
The hackers published the passwords of some Gawker staff members and mockingly identified thousands of users who had listed their password as “password.”
Gawker’s Web sites run on a homegrown content management system, and some of the source code for that system was leaked by the hackers on Sunday. The hackers, who worked under the name “Gnosis,” published an article on Gawker that contained a link to the code.
Gawker Media became aware of the hacking attempt on Saturday, and staff scrambled to figure out how much virtual damage had been done. On Sunday afternoon, publishing came to a halt, apparently because the company was resetting the passwords for its dozens of writers and editors.
On Twitter, one of the bloggers for Jezebel wrote, “I’d write a post about how we’ve been hacked and can’t publish, but we’ve been hacked and can’t publish.”
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commonsenseguy
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 11:58pmwhat is the different between a thieves and liars? nothing!!!!!! they are the same. i don’t feel sorry for gawker at all, they said they found the prototype phone , but really do you think someone would leave that phone in a bar ? so now they have been attacked and they are a little pissed off, it takes a thief to know a thief and a liar to know a liar, they are the same !!!!! you play with fire you will get burned and all hell fire is starting to burn .
Report Post »82dAirborne
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 11:41pmI love it! I’ll bet you $1 it’s the left attacking the left. If you are on the ‘net you are likely to be attacked. If you don’t protect yourself you deserve it. It’s just the way things are today. Would you leave your house or car unlocked??
I wish we all lived in Bedford Falls but we don’t.
Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!
Report Post »poverty.sucks
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 8:35amI don’t lock my cars or home. If someone needs it more than I do then they’re welcome to it. I’m not going to waste my time worrying about locking down stuff. Everything can be replaced or do without. When I die, I’m not taking any of it with me.
Report Post »TJexcite
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 10:53pmNot to worry all the passwords will be posted in the next wikileak batch along with the credit card numbers and home address of all it writers and editors. The people have right to know. It is undemocratic to keep passwords and private information hidden from the public. /sarc
Report Post »Its Gonna Getcha
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 10:21pmSomething not right there. Ooooooh bad feeling.
Report Post »American_Woman
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 10:19pmI love that name “Goofy Teddy Bear” CheezWhiz!
Report Post »poverty.sucks
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 10:12pmIt‘s Obama’s fault.
Report Post »grahampink
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 10:01pmcouldn’t happen to a more deserving site.
Report Post »NytMuves
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 2:21amI find that easy to agree with.
Report Post »GeauxAlready
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 9:53pmYou just can’t have anything anymore. No matter what it is….Makes one think are we really safe?
Report Post »walkwithme1966
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 9:58pmYou know I think all of these internet problems are just set up so the government will have a reason to put restrictions on the internet. What are they called – false flags? I am beginning to wonder!!
Report Post »http://maboulette.wordpress.com
GeauxAlready
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 10:00pmOh! I forgot!
Merry Christmas…
Report Post »cheezwhiz
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 10:03pmAs the goofy teddy bear says :
Report Post »Watch their other hand
Psychosis
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 12:34amoh my can it be? IS WALKWITHME awakening to reality, or is she just up from her liberal nap and is heading back to bed ? lol
Report Post »NytMuves
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 9:48pmThieves Steal
Report Post »Criminals Destroy
Hackers Investigate, improve and create.
Calling this bunch HACKERS is inaccurate.
Sledgehammer
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 9:58pmAnd what have you been up to?
Report Post »ltb
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 10:30pmNytMuves said: “Hackers Investigate, improve and create. Calling this bunch HACKERS is inaccurate.”
—–
If someone ever breaks into your house, lounges around in your clothes, gets on your computer to look at all of your personal files and then steals copies of all of your financial records, I hope the police tell you, “I’m sorry, we’d like to file a report, but these people were just investigators.” You little turd, what do you think gives you the right to rummage through other people’s personal stuff?
Report Post »Atheist
Posted on December 12, 2010 at 10:42pmI have changed my password on most sites today just because of this news.
The Atheist
Report Post »dpcwollmann
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 1:28am@LTB The term “hacker” has taken on shady connotations but it‘s original usage described people who tinkered with technology to discover how it worked and to improve it or put it to uses which hadn’t occurred to the original designers. You can thank _real_ hackers (not the bozos who break into other peoples’ computers and steal passwords) for most of the Internet infrastructure we all take for granted.
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 1:57amUm no. Hackers did not start out as some noble club aiming to improve technology, and they have absolutley nothing to do with the internet. Security technology results from their attacks, but trying to claim that is their goal is just plain stupid. That’s the equivalent of saying that people that steal cars are only trying to improve auto security technology.
The first hackers were phone phreakers and cracking groups. Their only goal was to get something without paying for it. You’ve been watching too many hollywood hacking movies bud.
Report Post »NytMuves
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 2:14amHey LTB, you ignorant fool, you missed the point. Hackers improve code. This was not the action of a hacker. It was the action of a criminal. Just because they use a computer to commit said crime does not make them a hacker. Most likely they are a bunch of CODE KIDDIES (look it up). So insult me because you don’t like what I said. Call me names? Wow. You are not only cool but also wise. Maybe the rest of us can learn to be as 1337 as you are.
Report Post »NytMuves
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 2:19amRowgue, again. That is not “hacking” it is criminal activity.
Report Post »RealityCheck
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 2:45amI find your guys debate on “Hacker” simply comedic. The bottom line here is, if it can be built it can be taken apart. Many things attribute to the mess of the Internet but the first and foremost problem is the belief of encryption making things safe and secure. The other is the emergence of how to use the internet for making money. The internet was called “ The Information Highway ” for a reason. Now you have an ever growing dependency on the internet for everything from shopping, banking, and medical records. Everyone knew how simply un secure the internet was and is, yet greed has won yet again and public opinion is all the more clueless.
Report Post »EP46
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 6:16amOff Topic: Starting Jan. 1 Oprah Winfrey Network OWN Is this to be the new ONE WORLD NETWORK ????
Report Post »CitizenMatthew
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 7:06amNYTMUVES , your argument that these “criminals” are not hackers is ridiculous. Hackers who crack a company’s program to invent or create their own is essentially theft. They Hack because they can. They hack to get a freebie. They hack to crack a program to avoid buying it legitimately. They hack to steal identities to do some other malicious activity. While there may be some innocent hackers who merely want to see what they can do, when a person breaks the law, the hacker becomes a criminal.
Report Post »Reagan/Demint.deciple
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 7:25amLMFAO !! they’re embarrassed by being hacked, but their stories ? nope…
Report Post »toxic_freedom
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 7:45amI have to agree with NYTMUVES comment, hackers are a breed of their own calling this group hackers is inaccurate and discredits an already discredited community, for those who do not know the differences within the tech community yes this group is a group of hackers but for those within that community the word CRACKERS comes to mind hackers yes look for holes within programs operating systems and any other piece of digital data out there to expand on it and find solutions for it crackers solely do things for malicious intent
Report Post »toxic_freedom
Posted on December 13, 2010 at 7:47amto better explain what i am saying http://e-articles.info/e/a/title/The-Difference-Between-Hackers-and-Crackers/
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