Destructoid's User Records Compromised

January 19, 2009

Irreverent video game site Destructoid is cleaning up a bit of a mess this morning.

According to an e-mail we received from Destructoid editor Niero, a hacker cracked the site's user database over the weekend:

This is the letter every web site operator hopes he never has to write: it seems a glitch in our web site allowed someone to exploit the database this weekend. We have confirmed that the intruder succesfully obtained everyone's username and password.

As soon as we were alerted we shut down all servers, changed all passwords, took our forums offline, and notified everyone via email... We're doing everything we can do prevent this from ever happening again and deeply apologize for this incovenience.

On the bright side, we intentionally store very little personally identifiable information. However, you may still be at risk: If you frequently use the same password for other web services... we strongly urge you to update your password ASAP...

Destructoid has reported the incident to IC3 (FBI's internet crime complaint
arm)... We are also offering a $1,000 award to anyone with information that leads us to prosecuting the intruder...

Posted in

Comments

Re: Destructoid's User Records Compromised

Submitted by kalpsiz1 on Tue, 06/09/2009 - 10:58.

thank you admin

Re: Destructoid's User Records Compromised

Submitted by MarcL on Tue, 01/20/2009 - 11:15.

I've gotta wonder why they would store passwords in a readable/decipherable form anyways...

Did they store them as plain text? encrypted?

I would hope they would hash the password, so that it can't be read, but only confirmed for login purposes.

Re: Destructoid's User Records Compromised

Submitted by Sigma 7 on Mon, 01/19/2009 - 14:20.

Thankfully, my E-mail address password is different than Destructoid's. However, given the quantity of passwords that I have to save for the many different sites, I'm kind of forced to use a set of three common passwords, especially since it's a bit difficult to automatically transfer saved passwords from one comptuer to another.

I do have a password file, but even that's a bit fatiguing to search each time.

Re: Destructoid's User Records Compromised

Submitted by Arcanagos on Mon, 01/19/2009 - 13:04.

This is why you should ALWAYS be careful about your internet security... some useful tips (that hopefully should be obvious to most) if anyone's interested:

NEVER click a seemingly random link posted on a forum unless its to a site you know and trust... sometimes they might be legit, but sometimes the links contain hidden keyloggers designed to steal passwords and (in the worst cases) credit card numbers (these have been rampant on the WoW forums lately so I thought it'd be worth mentioning)

If you surf a lot... ALWAYS use Firefox with the Noscript addon... a lot of "driveby" spyware downloading is done through javascripts and noscript blocks those unless you whitelist the site (which only takes about 2 clicks)

NEVER, EVER use the same password for two different internet accounts... if one account gets compromised... you lose them all.

ALWAYS download antispyware and antivirus protection and run them regularly (i usually run mine about once every 1-2 weeks, but I dont surf or download much so it may be different for you)... some good free ones are AVG antivirus, Spybot: search and destroy, and Lavasoft Ad-Aware

Hope this helps, feel free to add on to this if i missed anything

"Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend. Do it in the name of Heaven, Jack Thompson'll justify it in the end." - nightwng2000

Re: Destructoid's User Records Compromised

Submitted by hellfire7885 on Mon, 01/19/2009 - 14:20.

I jsut downloaded Noscript, thanks.

Re: Destructoid's User Records Compromised

Submitted by Wraith108 on Mon, 01/19/2009 - 16:57.

There's a addon for Firefox called passwordmaker that's good as it uses a master PW on your computer and makes a random one for each site you use it on. Also you can get a keystroke scrambler too.

Re: Destructoid's User Records Compromised

Submitted by insanejedi on Mon, 01/19/2009 - 12:53.

luckly I don't use Destructoid. But the lucky ones live to feel guilty, so I feel bad for anyones accounts outside of Destructoid that may have been comprimised, especially ones linking to personal banking accounts and such.

Re: Destructoid's User Records Compromised

Submitted by Wraith108 on Mon, 01/19/2009 - 12:45.

A similar thing happened to me some punks hacked a forum I use and then I found I couldn't get into MSN anymore. Fortunately MS reacted quickly to my E-mail. It wasn't fun though.

Re: Destructoid's User Records Compromised

Submitted by DarkTetsuya on Mon, 01/19/2009 - 12:02.

... Yeah I saw the email. ><; (Luckily my cohorts have a site upgrade in the works, tho the worst I've had to worry about is rogue spambots on our forums :/)

300 Episodes and counting: http://www.orangeloungeradio.com/

400 Episodes, TEN YEARS and counting: http://www.orangeloungeradio.com/ | Voice of Geeks Network - http://www.vognetwork.com

Shout box

Cecil475: @PHX Corp - The dude's a moron who wouldn't know crap if it came up and kicked him.05/19/2013 - 6:36am

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/ea-sports-developer-calls-wii-u-crap-and-nintendo-wa-508481261 EA Sports Canada Moron calls Wii U 'Crap' and Nintendo 'Walking Dead'05/18/2013 - 11:42am

E. Zachary Knight: If the videos are of sufficient quality that people subscribe and watch regularly, then those let's players are providing a service that people want. That is the heart of capitalism. That is not something that should be shamed.05/17/2013 - 8:06am

E. Zachary Knight: I have no idea who either of those people are. However, I still don't see why making a business out of creating let's play videos is somehow evil or wrong.05/17/2013 - 8:04am

MaskedPixelante: It sure is if you're just doing it for the money. See Tobuscus and/or Pewdiepie for what happens when people get into it just for the money.05/17/2013 - 7:30am

E. Zachary Knight: Why is it wrong to make money doing LPs? Why should that be something that should be shamed?05/17/2013 - 6:20am

MaskedPixelante: https://twitter.com/PsychedelicSA/status/335183893214924801 Now here's an interesting, glass half full thought about the Nintendo LP thing. It outs the people who are just doing LPs to make money.05/17/2013 - 5:56am

E. Zachary Knight: I responded in writing to all this "let's play" stuff Nintendo Started. No need for my permission, I won't give it. It's not mine to give. http://divineknightgaming.com/?p=29205/16/2013 - 2:21pm

E. Zachary Knight: Lars Doucet of Levelup Labs has a Reddit going on game companies that allow monetization of Let's Play videos. http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1egayn/lets_build_a_list_of_game_studios_that_allow/05/16/2013 - 1:04pm

Sleaker: @Imautobot - yah I wouldn't use an emulator as a good first run test of how stable the console is, haha.05/16/2013 - 11:47am

E. Zachary Knight: The 50th person to jump off a bridge is just as dumb if not dumber than the 1st.05/16/2013 - 10:03am

MaskedPixelante: Yeah, let's all jump on Nintendo for doing this, even though they're hardly the first company to do this...05/16/2013 - 9:47am

E. Zachary Knight: Wow Nintendo, this is wrong. http://kotaku.com/nintendo-forcing-ads-on-some-youtube-lets-play-video-50709238305/16/2013 - 8:44am

Imautobot: @Sleaker, further gameplay has revealed that the controller button do stick under the faceplate. Also, The NES emulator (Emuya)keeps crashing on me, though I think a bad ROM is causing it.05/16/2013 - 7:10am

Papa Midnight: AE: I wonder if any other publishers will follow suit.05/15/2013 - 8:12pm

Andrew Eisen: EA is ditching Online Pass. http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/15/ea-kills-its-controversial-online-pass-program/05/15/2013 - 7:20pm

Avalongod: @Zach and quicnkold...I've read the bill and the intent of it is to fear-monger. It's not a balanced message. I don't recall the ESRB being mentioned at all. It's more "keeps your kids away from these movies/games or they'll become violent"05/15/2013 - 4:35pm

E. Zachary Knight: quiknkold, The big problem with that legislation is the amount of misinformation out there. Who is going to ensure that the information in the pamphlet is accurate?05/15/2013 - 3:25pm

quiknkold: REBeardogg : I'm on the fence about this. on one side, I want parents to be aware of the ESRB, and even Movie Ratings. On the other hand, I feel this will be used for nothing but Propaganda. The ESRB does a good job.05/15/2013 - 3:07pm

IanC: Frostbite is coming out on iOS devices. Yet the Wii U cant handle it? *coughbullshitcough*05/15/2013 - 2:31pm

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