Users of Monster.com and USAJobs.gov were advised to change their passwords due to a serious hacking attack which has compromised many user's usernames and passwords.
From my line of work it is not surprising to see a site like Monster.com or USAJobs.gov to be a target for being attacked by hackers. With our current economic conditions in the USA and the lost of millions of jobs in the past few months it is no wonder hackers are going after such sites. You have millions of additional or new people that may be utilizing career sites such as Monster.com and USAJobs.gov to seek employment. What better way for hackers to obtain usernames and passwords from multiple computer users?
Why hack a career site?
Great question, why hack a career site, you obviously cannot make any money from hacking a career site or can you? The answer is yes! Researchers have discovered that about 41 percent of people use the same password for all or most websites that they access online. This means if a hacker gains your username, password and/or your email address from Monster.com or USAJobs.gov then they can use that information to log into a banking account of yours or access other personal information that could lead to identity theft. The recent report from Sophos senior technology consultant, Graham Cluley has said that "One very real risk is that the hackers will use the email addresses and personal information they have stolen to mount a very realistic phishing campaign to gather more sensitive information from the victims. But, that's just the tip of the iceberg - since so many people use the same password for every website, there's a good chance the cybercriminals will be able access users' bank accounts and other sites."
Sophos Labs senior technology consultant, Graham Cluley has posted a video "What the Monster.com security breach teaches us about passwords". We have included the video below for education purposes:
What the Monster.com security breach teaches us about passwords from Sophos Labs on Vimeo
Basically, this could turn into a serious epidemic where people that are desperately seeking for employment are hit with more bad luck. If you are wondering if Hackers have a soul then let me answer that for you… NO! Monster and USAJobs.gov are in the process or warning their users of this security breach while Monster.com has posted an advisory on their website only at the moment.
Similar attacks have happened in the past as you can only imagine only now this new attack against career sites may be a sign of hackers taking advantage of the USA's economic conditions. As the economic conditions get worse it may mean that we will unfortunately see more attacks like this.
How can you resolve this issue on your own?
Very simple, change your password! Utilizing a different and strong password for each site that you access online is the best thing that you can do.
Do you think hackers are facing an economic struggle of their own?