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A Manhattan woman’s life was turned upside down yesterday, one day after hackers gained access to Gawker Media’s servers, exposing her e-mail account, password and other personal information.
Within hours, the hackers had used her Gawker information to crack her Twitter and Facebook accounts, sending hate-filled, anti-Semitic instant messages and updates to her friends and family.
A friend of the victim, who did not want to be identified, said she was in shock. While she can delete the messages, she has yet to regain control of her e-mail account.
“This [password] issue isn’t just about Gawker,” said security expert Hemanshu Nigam, founder and CEO of SSP Blue. “It relates to 10 or so other sites and your home computer, finances that could be on bank accounts. ”
Like other users who had an account with Gawker, a suite of snark-filled Web sites run by Nick Denton, the victim who entrusted Gawker with her information was exposed after hackers grabbed the unencrypted passwords of more than 200,000 users.
Now Gawker — which rarely shows mercy to its own targets — finds itself in the awkward position of asking for forgiveness from the community of commenters it depends on for a steady stream of gossip, tips and remarks that are the “life-blood” of its sites.
“I do want to tell you how sorry we are,” Denton wrote in a comments thread on the flagship site yesterday. He also posted a photo of himself and his chief technology officer, Tom Plunkett, holding up a sign that read, “We’re Sorry.”
Some Gawker commentators were fuming that the first notice of a potential breach went out on the Twitter micro-blogging site and that Gawker’s management brushed off early warning signs of a problem.
“We, the commenters, are your base — the Typhoid Marys of all of your articles, scoops and gossip alike, who bring in those new eyes you so desperately chase,” wrote one. “Prank or not, y’all had a responsibility to warn us on the main page that there was a possibility of a compromised system.”
Gawker temporarily disabled Facebook Connect servers and said it never stored Twitter account passwords. However, it told those who comment on Gawker items and use the same passwords on Twitter and Gawker to change both passwords. Gawker’s sites, however, did not allow customers to delete accounts as of late yesterday.
The hacker group, called “Gnosis,” said Gawker was chosen because of its “arrogance.” Gawker had been critical in the past of a hacker group, 4Chan, which is linked to Anonymous, the group that had allegedly put MasterCard and others under cyber attacks.
Gnosis posted the user names, passwords and e-mail addresses of Gawker users to a site called ThePirateBay. Some of those compromised e-mails belonged to government officials at NASA and the Department of Defense, among other units.
In a message left at ThePirateBay.com, Gnosis wrote: “F***k you Gawker, how’s this for “script kids.”? Your servers, your database, source code have all been ripped to shreds! You wanted attention, well guess what, you’ve got it now.”
The FBI is probing the attack and is scheduled to meet with Denton and Gawker today at the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan. catkinson@nypost.com