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Ubuntu forums hacked, 1.8 million passwords and emails compromised


Ubuntu Forums, a site for the community using the Linux-based Ubuntu operating system, was hacked over the weekend, with tech sites estimating the attack may have affected as many as 1.82 million users.
 
As of Sunday night, visitors to the site (www.ubuntuforums.org) were greeted with a splash page indicating Ubuntu Forums is "down for maintenance."
 
"There has been a security breach on the Ubuntu Forums. The Canonical IS team is working hard as we speak to restore normal operations. This page will be updated regularly with progress reports," read the message on the site.
 
So far, the site's administrators said the attackers may have "gotten every user's local username, password, and email address from the Ubuntu Forums database."
 
It advised those who use the same password in Ubuntu Forums and on another services such as email, to "change the password on the other service ASAP."
 
However, it said Ubuntu One, Launchpad and other Ubuntu/Canonical services are not affected by the breach.
 
Ubuntu said learned the forum site was defaced last July 20. It quickly replaced the defaced page with the splash page "while investigation continues."
 
Security researcher Graham Cluley said the massive data may have impacted over 1.8 million users of the Ubuntu operating system.
 
"However, the advice to ensure that you are using different passwords on different websites is a good one. If you don’t do that, there is always the risk that a hack in one place could lead to a security breach against other online accounts that you might own," he added. — TJD, GMA News
Tags: linux, ubuntu, hackers
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