Quora says hackers took data on 100 million users

Popular question-and-answer site Quora has discovered that hackers broke into its system and took data on 100 million users.

Popular question-and-answer site Quora has discovered that hackers broke into its system and took data on 100 million users.

The company announced in a blog post Monday that it discovered user data was compromised by a third party who gained unauthorized access to one of its systems. The company says the data taken included names, email addresses and encrypted passwords, along with data imported from linked social media networks.

Data related to the site, including upvotes, downvotes, questions, answers, comments and direct messages could also have been accessed.

“The overwhelming majority of the content accessed was already public on Quora, but the compromise of account and other private information is serious,” the blog post reads.

The company isn’t sure on the precise cause of the hack, but has retained a third-party digital forensics firm to assist with the investigation. Law enforcement has also been contacted.

Quora is still figuring out who exactly was compromised, but the blog post states users should be getting notices via email. In the blog post, the company states that while its passwords are hashed with a salt that varies for each user, it’s wise for users to change their passwords elsewhere if they reused their Quora password elsewhere.

“It is our responsibility to make sure things like this don’t happen, and we failed to meet that responsibility,” the blog post states. “We are continuing to work very hard to remedy the situation, and we hope over time to prove that we are worthy of your trust.”

The announcement comes after a rash of data breaches, including a mammoth incident announced by Marriott hotels on Friday.

Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• Jail time for Maine child in 764 marks turning point in federal law enforcement

Technology

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

• The Collective Cyber Defense letter wrote your next vendor questionnaire

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure