On Gawker and Passwords

Looks like Gawker was hacked. I’m not a “gawker” guy, but I am a lifehacker reader. And, in 2008, I left a comment about my favorite RSS reader. And, after downloading the torrent, I saw my password and email.  I’m sure this will be indexable by google in a few days. I guess they didn’t store the passwords securely. oops.

Bummer.

I’ve been using the interwebs since before AOL and 2400 baud modems, and this is the first time I’ve been aware of being compromised. Thankfully, I used my normal stupid web password, and not one of my stronger passwords. However, I will now be searching for my username and changing my password whenever I see it pop up. I’m also using a new easy-to-remember web password.

Of course, the moment lifehacker lets me delete my account, I will. 

On 14 December 2010, Robert Hernandez inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

Gawker Media has been criticized quite a bit for their slow response rate to the hack and their poor handling of informing users.  They are supposedly sending emails to all users that used their comment system, but I think a startup called Hint did so first (out of their own goodwill, since Gawker was dragging their feet).

The source code for Gawker’s content management system was also attained and leaked.  Pretty nasty blow for them on that part, since that is part of their secret sauce in developing and posting content.

Scary times we live in Makes me wonder how vulnerable other corporate networks are, and what sort of info they have stored that can be retrieved by hackers .

On 16 December 2010, Brian Yang inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

I have an account at Lifehacker, although I only used it once. I typically don’t write any comments there.

I just downloaded the torrent and thankfully, I was unable to find my password there. I changed my other passwords to be on the safe side though.

I should stop using the same password for everything.