usernames
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Clothing resale site Poshmark suffers data breach
Clothing resale site Poshmark has been hacked. Data from users in the US, including full names, usernames, genders, email addresses, hashed passwords, clothing size preferences and social media profile information, were accessed by "an unauthorized third party."
Man arrested for selling Netflix and Spotify accounts
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) announced today that they arrested a man accused of selling stolen login credentials online. The unnamed man, a 21-year-old living in Sydney, Australia, operated a website called WickedGen.com that advertised having almost one million usernames and passwords for Netflix, Spotify, Hulu and other services. Police believe he generated AU$300,000 (about $211,000) selling the stolen logins.
One million Forbes accounts reportedly stolen in Syrian Electronic Army hack
Having already targeted several big name news organizations, the Syrian Electronic Army has hit another, this time publishing a reported one million user credentials from business site Forbes.com. Re/code reports that the group posted various messages to its Twitter account claiming responsibility for the attack, sharing a screenshot of the site's publishing system and indicating it accessed a Forbes employee's accounts in order to do so. Forbes, meanwhile, has confirmed the compromise, prompting users to change their passwords and be on their guard for a potential increase in targeted phishing attacks. While passwords were hashed (not stored in plain text), they may not be safe from enterprising third parties. The site has since returned to normal, but the company says it's in contact with law enforcement to identify exactly what happened. Between this and the recent Kickstarter hack, it's been a lousy few days for database administrators.
Yahoo doling out inactive usernames to new owners, opens a Watchlist for $1.99
Yahoo users eager for a name change began logging their interest for inactive usernames in mid-July, and now Mayer and Co. are finally ready to re-assign dormant email addresses. Messages from the search giant are going out to folks who applied for a new identity, notifying them if one of their screen names of choice is ready for the taking. Those who struck out on desired account names will automatically have their choices added to a "Watchlist," and will be alerted if and when they're freed up. While keeping tabs on preferred monikers via the Watchlist is free for those who registered their interest in snapping up handles, it'll cost others the princely sum of $1.99 to monitor availability for three years. Click the neighboring source links to stake out a maximum of five names you're partial to.
Yahoo to free up old usernames after a year of inactivity
Unless you're quick to sign up with new services, snagging a simple user ID with your name, or just about any word from the English dictionary, can be unlikely. If you're only first joining Yahoo today (for one reason or another), however, registering any account without a handful of random numbers tacked on at the end is downright impossible. That'll soon change. The internet giant has announced on Tumblr that come July 15th, IDs that have been inactive for more than a year will be released to the public, giving shoegurlmary1992@yahoo.com a chance to snag mary@yahoo.com, for example. The decision seems perfectly reasonable to us. We only hope that other sites (Twitter) follow suit.
Apple servers hacked by Anonymous
According to Anonymous' twitter account, the hacking group used a SQL injection exploit to pull down the usernames and passwords of several accounts from an Apple-run server (abs.apple.com). The passwords appear encrypted so there is little threat that others can abuse this account information. It's more a blow to the company's reputation. The hackers implied they could do more if they wanted, but told the company and the public not to worry as they "are busy elsewhere."
