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PlentyofFish Hacked, Founder Emails Hacker's Mom

Posted by Soulskill on from the that'd-probably-stop-a-lot-of-hackers-actually dept.

hellkyng writes "The online dating site PlentyofFish was hacked, and purportedly 30 million customer records were stolen. The site's founder, Markus Frind, is blaming the security researcher who discovered the vulnerability and the journalist who confirmed the issue." The researcher who reported the vulnerability is Chris Russo, one of the guys who hacked The Pirate Bay last year. He explained his side of the story as well. Mr. Frind says he tracked down Russo's Facebook page and emailed his mom.

15 of 367 comments (clear)

  1. should not affect slashdot crowd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    should not affect slashdot crowd since they do not date.

    1. Re:should not affect slashdot crowd by Lord+Ender · · Score: 5, Funny

      On the contrary, I recently experimented with online dating myself. In my experience, the site should actually be called "plenty of whales" though...

      --
      A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
    2. Re:should not affect slashdot crowd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My wife and I met via online personals. She was telling me that about 95% of the emails she got were from men with user ID's along the lines of "Bigpenis69" and "Bigstud72" and the like. That's the reason why she even talked to me, because I didn't have a name that was in any way reflecting my supposed virility. I have no trouble believing that most of your sister's replies come from old, creepy dudes.

      Also, regarding the "plenty of whales" comment above... it amuses me to no end that many lonely geeks and nerds will judge less attractive women to be not worth asking out, only to turn around and moan and whine when attractive women use the same methods to exclude them from consideration.
      Q: "Why don't pretty women like me?"
      A: Because they're just as shallow as you are and judge as much by appearance as you do.

  2. makes sense by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The "hacker" found a weakness in the websites security and exploited it. Then the website found a weakness in the hackers security and did the same in turn. You'd think the hacker in question would be a little more secure about their own personal information.

    1. Re:makes sense by SIR_Taco · · Score: 5, Funny

      What's worse, after his Mom reads the e-mail, she'll probably kick him out of the basement!

      --
      I say don't drink and drive, you might spill your drink. Before you get behind the wheel just stop and think.
    2. Re:makes sense by pawntokingspawn · · Score: 5, Funny

      and cancel his Warcraft subscription

  3. Password in plaintext email by RobertB-DC · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was on the site for a while. It was always slightly clunky, but I'd prefer a free, one-man labor of love to a buy-in site that basically tries to promise sex for money. It was particularly helpful in helping me discover that I wasn't as bad as most of the creeps out there... and conversely, creepiness doesn't belong exclusively to those of the male persuasion. That was good to know -- it helped me realize that I need to be picky. (And my pickiness was rewarded many times over when I found my fiancee. In my Sunday School class).

    But on the tech side, it irritated the living crap outta me that POF would send me a weekly e-mail with my password IN PLAIN TEXT. Every week, just as a reminder of how easy it would be to log in. Yeah, easy for *anyone* to log in as me and, if I were foolish enough to put important information on POF, to mess with my life. And, of course, if I were foolish enough to use that password for my bank account... well, I think anyone on this site knows the rest.

    So I'm not at all surprised that someone found a way to hack POF. Sending a password in plaintext is bad, but not uncommon. Heck, T-Mobile does it. But sending it every week, unsolicited? I'm sorry to be rude, but that's just stupid.

    --
    Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
    1. Re:Password in plaintext email by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      And my pickiness was rewarded many times over when I found my fiancee. In my Sunday School class.

      Please confirm that you weren't the teacher, and she's not a student in this class...

    2. Re:Password in plaintext email by Whalou · · Score: 5, Funny

      [...]I'd prefer a free, one-man labor of love[...]

      So you don't date? :-P

      --
      English is not this .sig mother tongue...
  4. Your mom... by meerling · · Score: 4, Funny

    So an immature but technically competent jerk cracked you computers and is now trying to get your companies lunch money, metaphorically. Your response is, among other things, to tell his mom.
    O_o
    You know, that sounds about right.

  5. Re:Hyphens by arth1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ask the good people at penisland, expertsexchange and powergenitalia that :)

  6. Markus' Email to Chris Russo by Japong · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Quoted from Russo's response:

    If this data goes public I am going to email every single effected user on Plentyoffish your phone number, email address and picture. And tell them you hacked into their accounts.

    Then i'm going to sue you In Canada, US and UK and argintina. I am going to completely destroy your life, no one is ever going to hire you for anything again, this isn't piratebay and we definately aren't fooling around.

    Markus.

  7. That *was* the traditional penalty by billstewart · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Back when Cheswick and Bellovin were doing the original Bell Labs firewalls, and caught a Dutch teenager trying to hack into their site, the Netherlands didn't have any computer security laws that made it illegal. "So we called his mom...."

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  8. Re:Not surprised by Joe+U · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Who uses MSSQL?!?

    The same groups that use Oracle and Sybase. People who care about database performance and support.

  9. Typical CEO by Stiletto · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Reading both accounts of the story (one from the CEO, the other from the security expert), it seems to be a case of "who do you believe". All we truly know is that the site was hacked, these guys were involved somehow, and now they're mad at each other. Everything else is just based on what one side or the other says.

    That said, looking through the blog postings of the CEO, he strikes me as having the classic case of paranoid narcissist personality disorder. Every other posting is a rant about how his competitors are all out to get him. Everything they do is about HIM and a response to HIS business. When eHarmony does something, it's not just an innocent business expansion, it's a direct personal attack on this guy. I've worked with presidents and CEOs who use similar wording to this CEO in their daily speech, and whose nuances and mannerisms seem to match this guy's perfectly. Although my examples are only anecdotal, I'd be willing to bet this disorder is quite common among business leaders.

    Not knowing more about the situation and only having their two accounts to go with, I would probably fall on the side of believing the security expert's account more, just looking at the level of paranoia and exaggeration in the CEO's blogging history.