E-comics outfit comiXology has written to customers advising them to
change their passwords after “recent review and upgrade of our security
infrastructure … determined that an unauthorized individual accessed a
database of ours that contained usernames, email addresses, and
cryptographically protected passwords.”
Just how many people are
affected is not known, as comiXology doesn't reveal how many customers
it has. But a September 2013 report in Crain's New York Business suggests
its apps have been downloaded 200 million times. If even a quarter of
those downloads became customers this is a significant breach.
The good news is that comiXology says “Payment account information
is not stored on our servers”, which chimes with your correspondent's
experience of the service: Apple provides its payment mechanism on the
iPad and the service uses Google Play for in-app purchase for its
Android incarnation.
The company is spinning the password change
request as sensible, not urgent. Its email to customers says “Even
though we store our passwords in protected form, as a precautionary
measure we are requiring all users to change their passwords on the
comiXology platform and recommend that you promptly change your password
on any other website where you use the same or a similar password.”
That's
probably decent advice, at least if your iTunes or Google Play
passwords are similar to your comiXology code. Get to it, readers,
faster than a speeding bullet, before HAXXOR SMASH!
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