Plenty Of Fish hacked. Usernames and passwords compromised, says founder

Popular dating site Plenty of Fish was hacked last week, exposing users email addresses, usernames and passwords, according to a blog post today from its founder and CEO.

In what he calls an incredibly well planned and sophisticated attack,Markus Frind writes that Plentyoffish was hacked last week and we believe emails usernames and passwords were downloaded. We have reset all users passwords and closed the security hole that allowed them to enter.

Frind says that an official announcement from the company will follow shortly so at present, the extent of the breach is unknown. However, the story behind the hack is interesting. Frind lays the blame on an Argentinian hacker. He claims that after breaking into Plenty of Fishs database, the hacker contacted Frinds wife claiming that Russians have taken over his computer and are trying to kill him, and his life is in extreme danger and they are currently downloading plentyoffishs database.

Frind alleges that the hacker claimed a widespread, Russian-led hack on major dating sites was underway and the gang responsible planned to steal $30 million dollars from them. Frind says that he believes that this was an extortion attempt by the hacker who later introduced himself as part of a security company that could help solve the problem.

In the comments to Frinds post, the hacker concerned denies the accusation, saying that he simply got in contact to offer a solution and wasnt responsible for any data breach himself.

Meanwhile, over on Hacker News, an in-depth discussion is taking place into the security (or otherwis! e) of Pl enty of Fishs method of storing passwords. It appears that the passwords have been stored in an unencrypted form, thus leading to their easy exposure to hackers.

So, extortion attempt or a legitimate security analyst trying to help? Were still unpicking the facts behind this, but one things for sure if youre a Plenty of Fish user, its best to change your password right now.


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