eCommerceNews New Zealand - Technology news for digital commerce decision-makers
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Hackers Kickstart mega security breach...
Mon, 17th Feb 2014
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Kickstarter, the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects, is under attack, with hackers stealing customer data in what appears to be a global security breach.

After opening up New Zealand-based projects in November last year, the crowd funding site was contacted last week by law enforcement officials, who advised the website was under attack.

“On Wednesday night, law enforcement officials contacted Kickstarter and alerted us that hackers had sought and gained unauthorized access to some of our customers' data,” says Yancey Strickler, CEO, Kickstarter.

“Upon learning this, we immediately closed the security breach and began strengthening security measures throughout the Kickstarter system.

“No credit card data of any kind was accessed by hackers. There is no evidence of unauthorized activity of any kind on all but two Kickstarter user accounts.

“While no credit card data was accessed, some information about our customers was. Accessed information included usernames, email addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers, and encrypted passwords.

“Actual passwords were not revealed, however it is possible for a malicious person with enough computing power to guess and crack an encrypted password, particularly a weak or obvious one.”

As a precaution, Strickler strongly recommends that users create a new password for their Kickstarter account, and other accounts where they use this password.

To change your password, log in to your Kickstarter account and look for the banner at the top of the page to create a new, secure password.

“We’re incredibly sorry that this happened,” Strickler adds.

“We set a very high bar for how we serve our community, and this incident is frustrating and upsetting.

“We have since improved our security procedures and systems in numerous ways, and we will continue to do so in the weeks and months to come. We are working closely with law enforcement, and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this from happening again.

“Kickstarter is a vibrant community like no other, and we can’t thank you enough for being a part of it.”

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns contact accountsecurity@kickstarter.com.