Hackers Steal Email Addresses Of Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest Users
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Three of the most popular social networking sites on the Internet have been hacked, experts said Friday.
Customer support service provider Zendesk announced the cyber-security threat on Thursday after hackers accessed the company's database and stole email addresses, phone numbers and names for Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest users.
All three sites sent out emails warning users to be wary of any suspicious emails requesting passwords or other private data.
With over 500 million users on Twitter and another 20 million on Tumblr and Pinterest combined, Rich Mogull, CEO of the security firm Securosis, told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO the hack is not your typical data breach.
Hackers steal personal info from social media sites
"It's not the end of the world, but the part that people need to worry about a little bit now is that htey have the contact information that you registered for those accounts with," Mogull said.
The most likely use of the stolen information, according to Mogull, was expected to be a "phishing" campaign, where hackers will send fraudulent emails to users that appear to be from a trusted source.
In a statement, Zendesk apologized to its customers and their users, but added that the breach is not expected to affect any other Zendesk customers or their users.
"We're incredibly disappointed that this happened and are committed to doing everything we can to make certain it never happens again," the statement read.
Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest users were warned not to comply with any email request for their password or other information.
