Hackers Hit Washington Post

Email addresses of 1.2M jobseekers stolen
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 8, 2011 8:03 AM CDT
Hackers Hit Washington Post
You "should be aware that you may receive some unsolicited e-mail (spam) as a result of this incident," a Post exec told users.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, file)

People who looked for work via the Washington Post's online Jobs section may start to see more spam in their inboxes. The paper says an unknown group of hackers hit the section last week, making off with around 1.2 million email addresses but not much else, the Christian Science Monitor reports. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. In a FAQ posted yesterday, the paper tells readers they "should be aware that you may receive some unsolicited email as a result of this incident."

This is gloomy news for the Post and most newspapers, which typically require readers to give up a few bits of personal info as part of the registration process, writes Matthew Shaer for the Monitor. "Readers like to trust that that personal information will be kept safe, not left exposed to marauding groups of hackers, whomever those marauding groups of hackers may be." (More Washington Post stories.)

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