Nvidia Forums Shut After Password Theft Exposes 400,000

Nvidia has suspended access to five of its websites, after three were hacked and two of its web stores were said to be compromised by a large password theft.

The graphics card maker admitted its Forums, Developer Zone and Research websites had all been hit, in what appeared to be “ a breach by third parties seeking sensitive information”, Nvidia said.

On Friday 13 June, DevZone passwords in hashed form were posted on a public site, whilst Forums users’ credentials, email addresses, hashed passwords with their random salt value, and public-facing ‘About Me’ profile information were published by hackers.

Nvidia had little to say on what data was posted from the hit on its Research site, other than to note it was “still investigating.” Overall, around 400,000 users were through to have had their details leaked.

Closing time

The company is also looking into whether the Nvidia Board Store and the Gear Store websites have been hacked. “We don’t have any evidence that credit card data or customer lists have been put at risk, but we’re investigating,” a spokesperson told TechWeekEurope. Nvidia has cut off access to those sites as a precautionary measure.

“We suspended the Forums once we discovered suspicious activity and notified users once we knew that unauthorized access had occurred. As a precaution, we recommend that users change any passwords that are identical to those they were using on the sites. Addressing this matter has been our highest priority,” the spokesperson added.

The attacks came after a slew of hits on big technology-driven companies. Last month, LinkedIn saw over six million of its users’ passwords leaked online, whilst the TechRadar website was hacked in June too.

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