New York Times Hacked?

First time accepted submitter porsche911 writes "It looks like the NYTimes have been hacked and a large number of subscribers spammed with messages about cancellation of their service. The phone system is overwhelmed as well. The Times is currently saying the email is a fake, but that raises other worries. They were one of the only 3rd parties that had the email in question so it appears either someone really screwed up or they've suffered a data breach." Update: 12/28 21:59 GMT by S : Looks like it was just a mistake by an employee.

Comments

NY Times Response

[NotSanguine]

Is this

Print Subscribers Only

[LostCluster]

This appears to be a phishing attack aimed at getting NY Times readers to re-up their subscription with a phony contact given. Looks like their e-mail list got leaked.

Used the unique address I gave to the NY Times

[jerryasher]

I got the email too, and it used the unique email address I gave to the NY Times, so either they were breached or some company they gave my data to was breached.

Joe Katz on twitter says the same thing:

"Joe Katz @joekatz 1h
@NYTPRGUY thing is, I got a "subscription cancelled" message sent to an email alias that only @NYTimes has for me. Was your list hacked?"

So remember folks when you outsource your IT and marketing and provide them your customer data, you are opening your customers up to their low security practices.

I can confirm the email being sent out.

[milbournosphere]

I got the supposed cancellation email this morning, for a subscription I haven't had in almost three years. I was going to call, but I guess I'll just ignore it for now. Text of the email I received is below.

Dear Home Delivery Subscriber, Our records indicate that you recently requested to cancel your home delivery subscription. Please keep in mind when your delivery service ends, you will no longer have unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. We do hope you’ll reconsider. As a valued Times reader we invite you to continue your current subscription at an exclusive rate of 50% off for 16 weeks. This is a limited-time offer and will no longer be valid once your current subscription ends.* Continue your subscription and you’ll keep your free, unlimited digital access, a benefit available only for our home delivery subscribers. You’ll receive unlimited access to NYTimes.com on any device, full access to our smartphone and iPad® apps, plus you can now share your unlimited access with a family member. To continue your subscription call 1-877-698-0025 and mention code [] (Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. E.D.T.).

Doesn't look like they're trolling for information, but I have not tried the number.

DNS Hack?

[Midnight_Falcon]

At first glance with little information, it appears as though the messages in question with reply-to address @email.nytimes.com, which resolves to the same host as the @ record of nytimes.com (presently, 11:58 PST, 199.239.136.200). However, the message was sent by dmailer099.dmx1.bfi0.com, 208.70.142.99. This is their upstream MTA provider called Epsilon, which had been known to have been hacked previously. Chances are this customer list was compromised from an upstream provider and the mail messages sent via hacking one of the servers at their mail provider, and the NYTimes internal network was not compromised, at least ostensibly by this act. Chances also are that NYTimes only uses this provider for mass communication and not internal messaging. So this is prominent because it involves the NYTimes and a phishing attempt, but in the grand scheme of things it's a bit of a dud.

NYT admits they screwed up

[gstrickler]

According the the linked article, an update from NYT indicates that they sent the email. It was supposed to go to 300 people, instead, it went to all 8M people with NYT accounts.