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Monster.com Hacked, User Info Compromised

by Terrence O'Brien on August 23, 2007 at 12:29 PM

Monster.com A Smorgasbord for Hackers and Phishers
Monster.com has recently come under attack from hackers, spammers and phishers (people who send phony e-mails to lure users into providing login info to banking and other personal accounts). The casualties of war: your personal information. After stealing the usernames and passwords of legitimate recruiters on Monster, the hackers were able to craft personalized phishing e-mails to job seekers based upon information gleaned from their resumes. The more specific and believable the e-mails are, the more likely they are to succeed. Success in this case is either getting the target to open an e-mail loaded with spyware or a virus, or better yet, hand over personal information like credit card details.

A server in the Ukraine used by the scammers was discovered to contain the personal details of 1.6 million people. Because of duplicate entries, security firms believe the server may actually only hold the personal information of "several hundred thousand" to 1.2 million people, as if that's any more comforting.

Symantec, makers of Norton AntiVirus, alerted Monster.com to the vulnerabilities, but also warned users to be careful of what they post online. A quick look around a social networking site like Facebook reveals plenty of people willing to post their full names, e-mail addresses, AIM screen names, birthdays, and in some particularly careless cases, home mailing addresses. Security experts suggest that personal information hosted on sites like Monster and Facebook be kept to a minimum, only revealing more after a contact proves legitimate.

From AOL News

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Tags: facebook, hackers, monster.com, phishing, security

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