'Just for lulz': Hackers leak 13,000 passwords from sites incl Amazon, PlayStation & Xbox
Published time: December 27, 2014 14:43
Edited time: December 27, 2014 15:32
Reuters / Pawel Kopczynski
A group, claiming to be affiliated with the hacktivist collective Anonymous, released a file containing 13,000 passwords and usernames along with credit card numbers from popular sites like Amazon and Walmart.
The information was released in a massive text document posted to Ghostbin, a filesharing site on Friday. By Saturday afternoon the document was no longer accessible.
The leaked account information came from several popular sites, including PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, Hulu Plus, in addition to a handful of porn sites. The Daily Dot has published a full list of the nearly 40 websites whose users may be compromised.
For good measure, the group also included a pirated copy of ‘The Interview’, a Kim Jong-un assassination buddy comedy, which gained international relevance during this month’s devastating Sony hack, causing the company to initially pull the film from release.
Anonymous, a loosely organized association of hackers and online activists, has a history of cyberattacks targeting governments, corporations and various organizations. The group is not known for going after individuals at random.
However, because the collective is decentralized, any hacker can ostensibly claim affiliation. The group responsible for Friday’s leak gave no ideological explanation for the hack, tweeting, instead, that it was “just for lulz.”
The odds your account info is among the 13,000 stolen combinations are highly unlikely, tech experts suggest it might be a good idea to update your passwords just in case.
This holiday season has seen several high-profile cyberattacks. On Christmas Day, a hacker group calling itself Lizard Squad shut down several online gaming sites. While last Tuesday, another group, dubbed Gator League, took credit for temporarily taking down the GCHQ site.
