CNET, a news and technology product reviews website, has suffered a security breach in which data from one million users was stolen. CNET was informed of the breach via a Twitter direct message conversation by a Russian hacker group who were responsible for the attack.
Details such as names, usernames, encrypted passwords and email addresses were stolen in the attack. CNET have since then announced that the issue had been identified and resolved, but will continue to monitor the situation.
The representative of the Russian group, known as ‘w0rm’, initially offered to sell the database for either $622 or 1 bitcoin, but later said that this was for publicity purposes only. The w0rm representative said it had no intention of decrypting the passwords or to sell the data.
Their reason for hacking the CNET’s systems are to improve internet security, and raise awareness by targeting high profile organisations. In a Twitter conversation, the representative said “[W]e are driven to make the Internet a better and safer [place] rather than a desire to protect copyright.” Further to this, they added “… that the experts responsible for bezopastnost [security] in cnet very good work but not without flaws.”
