“All of the above information has been outputted by Gnosis, a group who wanted to seemingly put Gawker back in its place, creating a 500MB torrent file, currently residing on the popular torrent tracker ThePirateBay,” Brian reports. “Inside the torrent file lies a file entitled Readme.txt. This file is potentially the most sensitive of them all, for it holds the usernames and passwords used by the entire Gawker staff, focusing particularly on Gawker’s founder Nick Denton. The usernames and passwords to Denton’s Google Apps, Twitter, Campfire accounts are all listed; Denton uses the same password for them all.”
Brian reports, “If you’re worried about whether your Gawker user password has been compromised or not, the company’s Lifehacker blog has published a FAQ on the issue. Essentially, if you logged in to comment on Gawker, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Kotaku, Lifehacker, Deadspin, io9, or Fleshbot you need to change the password for both your Gawker account and anywhere else you use that password.”
Full article here.
Kashmir Hill reports for Forbes, “In addition to being an embarrassing breach of security, given that many of Gawker’s scoops come from anonymous sources, this attack could lead to some uncomfortable — and possibly litigation-inspiring — unmaskings. ‘We went after Gawker because of their outright arrogance,’ a member of Gnosis tells Mediaite. ‘We have had access to all of their emails for a long time as well as most of their infrastructure powering the site.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Karma.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “KenC” for the heads up.]
Isn’t Gnosis supposed to post this information on Wikileaks?
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The same password for ALL of them?? Jeez, Denton really is a moron.
Karma? Perhaps. Posting the passwords on Pirate Bay seems a bit much to me. Not cool.
Great take, MDN!
Another Gizmodo (Gawker) “Exclusive.”
These pricks and lying ass dog thieves will now ake it up the ass! Next is asswip e Assaunge.
Couldn’t have happened to a better group of people.
Between this and the uprising of support on behalf of WikiLeaks, the hacker community has really been a force for good the past couple weeks.
LMFAO! Karma is a bitch! How embarrassing!
I feel bad for the regular joes that have to deal with this. Gawker….not so much!
They that live by the sword, die by the sword.
@ X
Once again, I stand in awe of your erudition and semantic prowess! Why, your vocabulary alone must be able to fill a Lilliputian thimble to vastly overflowing!
Oh man, you can’t pay for entertainment this good! It will interesting to hear if Gawker whines about the indecency and oh the humanity! Hehehehehe
Kama Sutra. Gawker. Choreographic consequences.
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Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch ofndicks
Oh, the irony is thick…..
Just to be clear, if you have ever posted a comment on any of Gawker’s properties, including Gizmodo, then your email address and password were exposed!
I’ve already gotten an email from Google, telling me that my email password needed changing today, because of it.
I admit to a feeling a bit of satisfaction. But that was quickly followed by a feeling of insecurity. How many innocent people were caught up in this hack and disclose event? Gnosis is effectively operating as an internet vigilante and could easily become the problem as much as the solution. The very group indicates a believe in their inherent superiority of insight and knowledge.
But, as long as it was Gawker…
Poor typing: The very name of the group indicates a belief in their inherent superiority with respect to insight and knowledge.
Let’s be clear about this, Gnosis didn’t steal the data. They “found” the data file lying on the floor of a bar….
Can’t wait for someone to publish the secret details of the iPhone prototype theft.
MDN, you bag of dicks. Do you seriously lack THAT much perspective? Some asshat at Gizmodo leaks iPhone 4 info based on some seedy doings, and you call it “karma” when the privacy of EVERYONE ON THE WHOLE FUCKING GAWKER NETWORK is compromised? Do you seriously think that Gawker rounded up EVERY EMPLOYEE AND FORUM USER and said “hey, let’s shit on Apple some”, to which everyone agreed and laughed?
People like you are why there’s a common conception of Mac users being arrogant, smug dickholes. The reality is, you operate some insignificant trollbait website that really makes reasonable people who happen to enjoy Apple products look like a bunch of flaming fanboy morons. The Gizmodo/iPhone debacle was bullshit, but for all of Gawker to be compromised in this way and calling it “karma”? Childish and condescending at best, flatly idiotic at worst.
Quit giving Mac users a bad name with this shit!
Someone needs a hug
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I wonder if this is why Apple made us change our passwords last week.
And this is Mac news?