DailyMotion is a platform commonly used to share video content worldwide. Over the years, the company has acquired a very large following, with close to 100 million users in total. Unfortunately, it appears that over 87 million of those user accounts have been leaked due to a data breach. Additionally, there is also a list of 18.3 million associated passwords, which are encrypted through bcrypt.
The Umpteenth Major Data Breach of 2016
The year 2016 has been filled with data breaches, affecting both small and large companies. Traditional platforms are often targeted by hackers due to their treasure trove of information. DailyMotion is the latest company to join this growing list of companies using insufficient security measures, as hackers obtained several dozen million user accounts with relative ease.
To be more precise, a total of 87.6 million user accounts have been hacked by unknown assailants. Also, close to 18 million bcrypt-encrypted passwords were leaked as well. For the time being, it remains unclear who executed this attack, why they did it, or what attack vector allowed them to obtain this information in the first place.
Samples of the stolen data have been leaked online, and BleepingComputer made an analysis of the information. In doing so, they were able to verify that all of the stolen information is genuine, and can only belong to DailyMotion and its user base–not a positive development for the video streaming company by any means.
What is even more disconcerting is how this data breach allegedly took place nearly two months ago. DailyMotion vaguely confirmed that unauthorized access to their back end occurred on October 20th, although further details remain extremely difficult to come by at the moment. In fact, the company seems rather tight-lipped regarding the whole ordeal, which will get them a ton of negative PR.
It is not the first, nor the last time that a major company will be affected by a data breach. Internet criminals come up with new ways to infiltrate systems, and the larger companies seem to have worse security than others. Then again, until more details become available, no one knows for sure how DailyMotion was breached in the first place.
LeakedSource has published a complete list of affected users, allowing people to determine if their account has been breached in the process. Although this is a vast data breach to begin with, not all of DailyMotion’s users are affected by this event. Changing one’s password, regardless of being affected, is the number one priority right now.
If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.