If you have ever had an account – even just to leave comments to articles and posts – on Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Gawker, Jezebel, io9, Kotaku, Deadspin, Fleshbot or Jalopnik, then you are in for a nasty surprise. Odds are good that your account has been compromised, and your username and password posted on the Internet, as the result of security breach of Gawker Media’s servers that happened over the weekend. Gawker media does get points for alerting all of their users as soon as they discovered the breach (about 10 minutes ago as of the time of this posting on 6:20 p.m. PST on Monday, December 13th, 2010).
Here is the notice that Gawker Media sent to all of their various sites’ users:
This weekend we discovered that Gawker Media’s servers were compromised,
resulting in a security breach at Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Gawker, Jezebel,
io9, Jalopnik, Kotaku, Deadspin, and Fleshbot. As a result, the user name
and password associated with your comment account were released on the
internet. If you’re a commenter on any of our sites, you probably have
several questions.We understand how important trust is on the internet, and we’re deeply
sorry for and embarrassed about this breach of security. Right now we
are working around the clock to improve security moving forward. We’re
also committed to communicating openly and frequently with you to make
sure you understand what has happened, how it may or may not affect you,
and what we’re doing to fix things.This is what you should do immediately: Try to change your password in
the Gawker Media Commenting System. If you used your Gawker Media
password on any other web site, you should change the password on those
sites as well, particularly if you used the same username or email with
that site. To be safe, however, you should change the password on those
accounts whether or not you were using the same username.The Internet Patrol is completely free, and reader-supported. Your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP.
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We’re continually updating an FAQ https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/brick-wall/) with more
information and will continue to do so in the coming days and weeks.Gawker Media
The Internet Patrol is completely free, and reader-supported. Your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP.
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Their sites don’t seem to help in determining what your password was and, thus, whether it was something you use often on important sites. So I tried to get the list from a torrent site to check, but that list doesn’t seem to open in Excel or Word or any program I know of.