HWZ Forum Site In Jeopardy Due to Malicious Entry and Suspicious Attacks
The HardwareZone or HWZ Forum website was the recent victim of a security breach, affecting approximately 685,000 user profiles. This is according to the site’s owner SPH Magazines in a news release.
According to the news release, a suspicious post had prompted an investigation to ascertain whether a security breach had indeed occurred.
Following investigations, HWZ revealed that a senior moderator’s account had been compromised by an unidentified hacker. The hacker then used this account to access the user profiles since September 2017.
“By using the compromised credentials from the hacked account to impersonate the senior moderator, the hacker managed to retrieve user profile data which comprised a name, email address and user ID, and possible optional data fields,” said SPH Magazines.
Changing Their Forum Account Password
Fortunately, it added that the database of the online tech portal did not contain NRIC (National Registration Identity Card) numbers, telephone numbers and addresses as these had been purged in line with the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) guidelines in July 2015.
As a matter of precaution, forum users were advised to change their forum account password, SPH Magazines said, adding that it has also engaged security consultants to conduct “a thorough review of the system”.
A police report has been lodged and PDPC has been informed, SPH Magazines said.
SPH Magazines and HWZ have since sincerely apologized to HWZ forum users for this breach of security.
“Users can rest assured that we remain committed to protecting all personal data shared with us,” the release added.
How Can You Prevent a Site Breach?
If this happened to bigger sites like the HWZ forum, it can possibly happen to you as well. Hackers do not discriminate as to their targets. Therefore, it’s important to keep your privacy in check. Make sure you protect your data by exerting careful and diligent measures, especially in web browsing. For good measure, choose a cyber risk insurance plan that can help you protect your private information. This works when you have large volumes of data for your website.
