Dating site Topface pays hacker who stole 20 million credentials

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.techworld.com/news/security/dating-site-topface-pays-hacker-who-stole-20-million-credentials-3596333/

By John E Dunn
Techworld.com
Jan 30, 2015

The ‘Mastermind’ hacker who stole 20 million user credentials from Russian 
dating website Topface has got an extraordinary response from his victim – 
an undisclosed payment for “finding” the vulnerability that led to the 
calamitous breach.

It’s an extraordinary turns of events that would be unthinkable in almost 
any other country but the site justified its decision with the argument 
that recovering the data would end the matter once and for all.

Recall that the hacker in question had tried to sell the stolen data on a 
crime forum which is where the breach was first noticed by a third party, 
US securty outfit Easy Solutions. Without that discovery the data would 
probably have been sold on without the site realising that a breach had 
happened in the first place.

“He [Mastermind] has confirmed the findings of our investigation and has 
made an agreement with Topface for no further distribution of acquired 
email addresses database,” the firm said in a statement.

[...]

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