Skip to main content

Gawker Hacked, User Accounts Stolen

Gawker Hacked, User Accounts Stolen - On December 12, 2010, CNET News reported that the celebrity news and gossip website Gawker.com had been hacked. The site currently has a statement warning users that the database was compromised, and the users’ passwords were stolen. The site had user passwords encrypted, but simple encrypted passwords are vulnerable to brute force hack attempts to reveal the password.

Gawker Hacked, User Accounts Stolen

In addition to having the database of passwords compromised, Gawker’s hacked website code was also revealed. A post was made with the Gawker website source code, and a link to the source code was available from the popular torrent download website, The Pirate Bay. The source code was available for download for several hours before it was found by Gawker website administrators to take down the code and fix the hacked website.

Gawker is a popular Hollywood celebrity gossip magazine that reports the latest celebrity news and reports. It is considered one of the primary online websites that reports some firsts in the celebrity news industry.

Internet data security requires protection of an online database to avoid issues such as SQL injection. SQL injection is a type of database security issue that allows the hacker to inject SQL code into the website code that retrieves data for the site. With poor security, the database such as the Gawker customer database runs the injected code for the hacker, so information can be retrieved, deleted or changed, depending on the type of code sent to the server.

This type of database hack is typically used to gain access to important information such as passwords, credit card numbers and banking information. SQL injection can be avoided using stored procedures or by “scrubbing” data to avoid the code that allows the server to run malicious code.

While Gawker fixed the hacked website, the site still must find the security issue on the website. Fixing a hacked website returns the site to a working state, so it can function and generate money from readers and reporting the latest celebrity gossip, but unless Gawker finds the security hole, it can happen again.

Gawker Hacked, User Accounts Stolen
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Farm dogs maul Irish Tourist

Farm dogs maul Irish Tourist - An Irish tourist who was mauled to death by two dogs while visiting an organic farm in Penang yesterday morning had more than 50 bite wounds and lacerations all over his body. Penang Hospital Forensic Department head Datuk Dr Bhupinder Singh, who performed the post-mortem on Maurice Sullivan (pix), 50, today, said he found the wounds on the victim's head, neck, hands and legs. "The victim had died as a result of severe haemorrhage due to multiple injuries from the dogs' bites," he said, adding that there were no signs that Sullivan suffered any ailment at the time of death. Farm dogs maul Irish Tourist Bhupinder also said both Sullivan's ears and the left side of his face were gnawed off in the incident. One of the ears was recovered from the scene. Bhupinder told reporters this after carrying out the post-mortem which began at 10am. Sullivan was attacked by two mongrels at the farm while taking photographs of the gr...
6 comments
Read more

Man Hits Teen on Plane Over iPhone

Man Hits Teen on Plane Over iPhone - Police say a man on a Southwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas punched a teenager who refused to turn off his iPhone as the plane approached the Boise airport. Officers arrested 68-year-old Russell E. Miller, of Boise, on suspicion of misdemeanor battery Tuesday. He has been released from jail on bond. Witnesses told police the 15-year-old was playing games and listening to music on his cell phone when flight attendants instructed passengers to turn off their electronic devices because the plane was landing. Witnesses told police that when the teen didn't respond, Miller got angry and punched the boy in the arm. Miller says he "tapped" the teen on the shoulder after he refused to turn off the phone. He told the Idaho Statesman that he may have "overreacted," but that he did not punch the teen. Man Hits Teen on Plane Over iPhone
5 comments
Read more

Contactless Debit Cards

Contactless Debit Cards - Contactless debit cards will make their formal debut in Canada next year with the launch of Interac Flash from Acxsys Corp.’s Interac Association, Canada’s national debit network. Interac’s first two Flash issuers are Scotiabank and RBC Royal Bank, which will roll out their first contactless cards next summer. The first acquirer is TD Merchant Services, a unit of Toronto-Dominion Bank. More issuers and acquirers are on the way, an Interac spokesperson tells Digital Transactions News, though no announcements have been made yet. Interac and the banks tested Flash this summer at some high-volume, small-ticket merchants in downtown Toronto. The spokesperson expects national merchants will be making formal announcements about acceptance. “There’s a lot of excitement in the merchant community,” she says. “Merchants are looking for that faster throughput.” In a statement, the Retail Council of Canada endorsed the new card. “Interac Flash is a welcome and needed ...
Post a Comment
Read more