Monster.com Attacked by Hackers Again

By Hercules K, BUSINESS 2.0 PRESS
Published: January 25 2009, 2:40 pm EST

monster Monster.com Attacked by Hackers AgainThe online job site Monster.com has been attacked by hackers resulting in lost user data on the site. Monster said “we recently learned our database was illegally accessed and certain contact and account data were taken, including Monster user IDs and passwords, email addresses, names, phone numbers, and some basic demographic data.” The company is recommending you immediately change your password and look out for phishing emails. USAJOBS (the U.S. government official job site) was also affected.

In 2007, hackers again attacked Monster.com with malicious ads that even if not clicked, still installed malicious code on the local machine and stole personal information from Monster. The personal information was then sent to a remote server. During that specific attack, more than 1.6 million entries of personal information from Monster.com users was compromised, according to internet security company Symantec. We should all definitely continue to think of pc security as we all begin to store more and more confidential information online.

Tags: , ,

Questions about this post? Please contact Hercules K at hercules@business2press.com

 Bookmark  Email | | | More
Short URL: http://bit.ly/AIG4
  • dude
    > ads that even if not clicked, still installed malicious code on the local machine

    Only if you're running Windows. Really people, time to move on... it's not the 90's anymore.
  • Good thing I'm on a Mac myself :)
  • Me
    Only if your an incompetent pc user, and since there are 40x more of us, there is simply more odds to find stupid users. Quit lumping me in with the short bus.
  • macgrl
    monster FIX your sh+t. ridiculous.
  • mathew
    Macs can get virus just it isn't as easy.
    www.dnschanger.com is the most recent. It is a trojan, the easiest way to put a virus on a mac, that one gets when downloading codecs for streaming adult videos. This virus has been adapted to allow background downloading of other material.
    There are other options than monster.com but realistically these days one should almost spam the job databases with the state of the economy... unless if you work for Apple. Posted 1.6 billion dollar revenue the same week that Microsoft fired 5,000 employees and slashed its contract/temporary employee workforce by 15% :)
  • that_hz
    If we were talking desktop, the pro-MS crowd needs to keep it quiet when there are 9+ million infected with this latest go-round. 15 times [not 40 times!?!] more users on windows [than mac] also means 15 times more inexperienced users. But let's be clear.... we're not talking about desktops' susceptibility to exploit; we're talking about their servers. Monsters' happen to be Windows.
  • Tess
    I win: I run linux.
  • Tre
    lolz Tess 31337 h4x0r
  • Leo
    dude:

    > ads that even if not clicked, still installed malicious code on the local machine

    First of all, this isn't the fault of Windows.

    Secondly it's not the fault of Monster.

    It's the fault of Microsoft/Internet Explorer, but more the fault of users who don't keep their software up to date.
  • web
    I hope the hackers will be able to find a good job for everyone on that database now :-)
  • Martin
    Windows is a solid OS if you know how to properly maintain it and prune all of the crapware that comes installed with it. Linux is superior however the majority of the population are either not smart enough or don't have the patience to learn unix commands. Instead of typing something on the command line to watch a movie, they point and click. Linux is still a ways off from becoming a solid desktop OS for the masses.
  • Justin
    Here's what it boils down to.

    Windows: Most widely installed OS worldwide.

    Mac OSX: Most widely know with the "trendy" groupies as being superior to everything else, including Bob Barker.

    Linux: Best OS that will take over the world with Ubuntu in the next 10 years.

    OF COURSE THE MAJORITY OF VIRII AND EXPLOITS WILL BE DEVELOPED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF WINDOWS' STRUCTURE AND THE SOFTWARE ASSOCIATED! What's the fun of a virus developer saying, "Hey guys! Look what I did! I made something that infects millions of computers LESS than what it COULD have been developed for! Aren't I special??".

    The replies would unanimously agree, "yes, you are".
  • Goon
    Justin's reply ftw.
  • matthew_is_a_dipshit
    Matthew, you are an idiot. A virus is NOT the same thing as a trojan. Yes, a Mac can get a trojan, as a trojan is just a peice of code that allows an external person access to a machine, not all that hard to make.
  • I personally don't think its a Windows issue, perhaps an issue in IE with regards to the problem of the malicious software being installed without even clicking...scary nevertheless!
  • pogo
    Well Martin, let me tell you about how it is to operate a large haldron collider. Oh wait, I won't because I never have, don't know the least bit about it so I would probably look like a dumbass. Kind of like people who have never touched a linux box (and known it) but like to speak of things like "typing commands" to , like watching a movie. Linux has a desktop too pal, many in fact. Mine, in fact, does things that windows couldn't even begin to dream of doing. It can even, in a pinch, open a movie when an icon is double clicked. Or single clicked if I so choose.
  • Perry Crann
    If a big site like Monster can't keep the bad guys out what chance does a mom and pop operate have .
  • Oh thats a really sad news.. Even I have to change my Monstor password now...
  • Tim
    As someone that worked with Monster for 2 years, once I switched to CareerBuilder not only did I get better responses but I didnt have to deal with issues like this ever. With Monster there was always something, at least once every few months.
  • If a big site like Monster can’t keep the bad guys out what chance does a mom and pop operate have ..
  • could we have more details on how the exploit was carried out before we go blaming it on microsoft and turning this into a fanboy argument
  • The most likely scenario is vulnerable source code rather than anything technology/infrastructure specific. Stored Cross Site Scripting or SQL Injection being the most likely.
blog comments powered by Disqus