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@ 2012/06/08The hacker suspected of stealing 6.5 million LinkedIn passwords is apparently a hopeless romantic, as he also stole 1.5 million passwords from dating site eHarmony.
The hacker dumped the combined total of about 8 million passwords on an unsuspecting web forum run by a Moscow company specialising in password recovery software. Obviously the company did not have this sort of “password recovery” in mind.
It is estimated that eHarmony has about 20 million users worldwide, so one in fifteen had their password stolen. However, eHarmony said only a “small fraction” of its user base has been affected, although we are not sure that one in fifteen qualifies as a small fraction.
Luckily the passwords were stolen in hashed form, the Telegraph reports, so it will take some work to convert them to a usable form, which should give users ample time to change them. Security experts will insist on using unique passwords for each login.
The site said it would contact affected members and reset their passwords. Otherwise they might end up with rather interesting looking profiles and even more interesting dates.
The hacker dumped the combined total of about 8 million passwords on an unsuspecting web forum run by a Moscow company specialising in password recovery software. Obviously the company did not have this sort of “password recovery” in mind.
It is estimated that eHarmony has about 20 million users worldwide, so one in fifteen had their password stolen. However, eHarmony said only a “small fraction” of its user base has been affected, although we are not sure that one in fifteen qualifies as a small fraction.
Luckily the passwords were stolen in hashed form, the Telegraph reports, so it will take some work to convert them to a usable form, which should give users ample time to change them. Security experts will insist on using unique passwords for each login.
The site said it would contact affected members and reset their passwords. Otherwise they might end up with rather interesting looking profiles and even more interesting dates.
