AVAST Forum Goes Offline After Data Breach
Vince Steckler, the CEO of AVAST Software announced in a blog post that the AVAST forum was currently offline because it was hacked during the weekend. The attacker gained access to user nicknames, user names, email addresses and hashed (one-way encrypted) passwords. Mr Steckler also added that sophisticated attacker can decrypt these passwords and added that once the forum will be back online; all the users will have to change their passwords.
He highlighted the fact that the breach affects only the community-support forum. "No payment, license, or financial systems or other data was compromised."
The organization is rebuilding the forum and stated that once it is online again, it will be faster and more secure. It is not clear how the attacker breached the forum as it is hosted on a third-party software platform but they believe it is a recent attack and managed to detect it immediately.
"We realize that it is serious to have these usernames stolen and regret the concern and inconvenience it causes you. However, this is an isolated third-party system and your sensitive data remains secure."
Source:[Avast Blog]
He highlighted the fact that the breach affects only the community-support forum. "No payment, license, or financial systems or other data was compromised."
The organization is rebuilding the forum and stated that once it is online again, it will be faster and more secure. It is not clear how the attacker breached the forum as it is hosted on a third-party software platform but they believe it is a recent attack and managed to detect it immediately.
"We realize that it is serious to have these usernames stolen and regret the concern and inconvenience it causes you. However, this is an isolated third-party system and your sensitive data remains secure."
Source:[Avast Blog]