Gawker wrestles with reader data breach, hacking
Readers' passwords are compromised in data breach, then the site itself is hacked with links to its purported source code said to be posted at The Pirate Bay.
Gawker.com has apparently been the victim of a pair of security compromises this weekend, one of which put reader's data at risk.
The news, pop culture, and gossip site informed readers today in a blog post that its database of 1.5 million reader-commenting accounts had been compromised and urged its users to change their passwords:
Our user databases appear to have been compromised. The passwords were encrypted. But simple ones may be vulnerable to a brute-force attack. You should change your Gawker password and on any other sites on which you've used the same passwords.
We're deeply embarrassed by this breach. We should not be in the position of relying on the goodwill of the hackers who identified the weakness in our systems. And, yes, the irony is not lost on us.
Later in day, it was revealed that the site itself was compromised as well when a post appeared there reportedly linking to the site's source code at The Pirate Bay. The story appeared under the byline of Gawker writer Adrian Chen, but Chen tweeted that he had not written the story and the site had been hacked.
Gawker representatives did not immediately respond to a request for additional information.