Of critical importance to any of you who use social networking sites such as Facebook and the various applications to which you can subscribe while using them (think Mafia Wars, etc.) is the recent news of the RockYou Database being compromised by hackers.

Occurring on December 4^th, the RockYou Database was infiltrated by the nefarious types who scour the internet for penetrable networks from which sensitive information can be retrieved and used for criminal purposes. Username and passwords were stolen, along with any other information that the RockYou application retrieves upon your use of it.

If it’s any consolation to those of you who might have fallen prey to this theft, none of the usernames and passwords have been published, but there’s nothing stopping the thieves from making them publically available – or selling them, even — when they’re so inclined.

The company behind the RockYou app is largely to blame, carelessly storing the information in an insecure text format. In addition to Facebook, other social networking sites that use the application have seen their users’ information hijacked, including Myspace and email services such as Gmail.

If you use any of these social networking sites, we strongly suggest that you change your password immediately, particularly if you’re someone who uses the same password for every site on which you’re a member.

Geek Choice works hard to stay on top of the latest security issues to help keep your computers safe. If you have any questions about the RockYou hack and how it affects you, or if you’re concerned that your web accounts or computer may have been compromised, give us a call at 1-800-GEEK-HELP (433-5435) and our techs can help.

Sources:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/14/rockyou-hacked/

http://www.securitywatch.co.uk/2009/12/14/security-problems-with-social-networking-persist/

http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/12/15/rockyou-hacked-32-million-account-passwords/

http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/personal-data-at-risk-after-sql-flaw-discovered-2750