Nvidia has confirmed that forums for users of its website have suffered a stroke that has resulted in the theft of user information. The company has confirmed that names, passwords and email addresses have been removed, but has not determined the number affected. For now the forums are closed and the company is working to locate faults in the system and power back on.
Large companies continue to be the target for cyber criminals, who see in their systems a unique opportunity to access large databases of users. In recent months there have been known major violations have resulted in important data theft. For example, LinkedIn data were extracted from 6.4 million users and more recently Yahoo has confirmed the theft of data from 400,000 people.
The user information has become a great asset and new cases of theft are soon to appear. The latter has to Nvidia as a sad character. In this case, hackers have breached the protection systems user forum, obtaining access to information of the participants in it.
Nvidia explained that last week found "suspicious activity" on their forums, after which "immediately began an investigation." The company explained that its engineers have been working "day and night" and have determined that "unauthorized parties have access to certain information from users."
Specifically, user names, email addresses, passwords and profile information has been compromised. The company explained that in their system passwords are encrypted, so the risk is lower. Despite this, Nvidia has recommended that users change their password if it is the same used in other service. When forums are restarted new password will be provided.
So far Nvidia has not specified the number of users affected. The firm has secured chip makers to continue "investigating the issue and working to restore the forums as soon as possible." In addition, Nvidia has confirmed that use "additional security measures to minimize the impact of future attacks."
Finally, to avoid scams phishing with stolen data, Nvidia has stated that "does not request confidential information via email. The company has recommended the bank or provide personal information in response to" any email that claims to have been sent by an employee or representative of Nvidia ".
Related links:
- Nvidia (http://www.nvidia.com/content/forums/index.html)
