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The car-sharing website Mitfahrzentrale.de is popular in Germany, but now users will not like it so much: it has been discovered that a considerable amount of personal data has been stolen from the site. What’s more, the case was discovered in March last year, but only now. Five hundred thousand bank account numbers, 100,000 email addresses, and 15,000 phone numbers were obtained.
The website, modeled on Linkedln, is a recruitment agency for programmers, which is why it is so embarrassing that almost its entire user database has been accessed. The attackers obtained eight million records, and the list has since appeared in several places online. Once again, users are advised to change their passwords immediately.
In April last year, the forum of encryption solutions provider Etherum was hacked, and more than 16,000 user IDs, passwords, email addresses, and other data were compromised. The company is undoubtedly embarrassed by the leak, but at least it can be said that the data was adequately protected; for example, passwords only had the hash ID on the system.
Dailymotion is probably the biggest loser of the month, with 87.6 million data stolen from its servers – user data, passwords, and other personal information all fell into the hands of the hackers. Anyone who had an account on the site would be better off changing their password, and of course, so would anyone else on any other website where they used the same username/password pair.
Evony Gaming’s database didn’t survive the first weeks of December: hackers hacked into the database that contains the Evony: Age II login data. Around 33 million players were affected, probably not because their game statuses were made available but because email addresses and account passwords were also compromised.
The servers of the website Weebly have been hacked, and a database of usernames and passwords has been obtained. Anyone who might be using the service had better change their password as soon as possible – and of course, not only for Weebly but also for any other site where they have used the same email/password pair.
In Russia, five banks have had their servers crippled by DDoS attacks. This trick is often used as a red herring, so we wouldn’t be surprised if within weeks we found out that some or all of the personal data of customers of the banks affected had been stolen. DDoS attacks on banks are not uncommon, with hundreds of such attacks in 2016 alone.
Tesco’s own-brand bank in the UK has been forced to suspend online transactions after it emerged that 20,000 accounts had lost money in varying amounts. The funds were withdrawn from the accounts over a weekend. Given that all transfers were initiated online, the source of the problem is likely to be the NetBank. This is suggested because Tesco did not restrict the use of cards linked to the accounts.
A hacker claims to have hacked into one of the most popular online dating sites, Adult Friend Finder, in October and obtained a significant amount of user data. Although it has been over a month since the alleged hack, the site has not been confirmed. Still, it has issued a statement saying that the matter is under investigation and that if any information comes to light, it will be shared …
Last.fm, which also reported an attack in 2012, is not defending its users’ interests in 2016. Forty-three million records were stolen. Fortunately, the passwords were encrypted. It is incomprehensible why companies keep secrets: leaks come to light sooner or later, and disclosures are far more damaging to reputation than if a company had come forward and told the truth itself.