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Kickstarter Security Breach Exposes Customer Data

Posted by Soulskill on from the if-only-there-were-a-way-to-crowdfund-better-security-precautions dept.

New submitter jbov writes "Kickstarter members received an e-mail at about 16:40 EST notifying them of a security breach. According to the e-mail, information including user names, encrypted passwords, mailing addresses, and phone numbers may have been revealed. Kickstarter members were urged to change their passwords. 'Older passwords were uniquely salted and digested with SHA-1 multiple times. More recent passwords are hashed with bcrypt.' Kickstarter claims that credit card information was not accessed during the breach. According to Kickstarter, law enforcement officials contacted the company on Wednesday night and alerted them that 'hackers had sought and gained unauthorized access to some of our customers' data.' Upon learning of the breach, Kickstarter closed the security breach and began strengthening security measures."

63 comments

  1. Happy Saturday from The Golden Girls! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Thank you for being a friend
    Traveled down the road and back again
    Your heart is true, you're a pal and a cosmonaut.

    And if you threw a party
    Invited everyone you knew
    You would see the biggest gift would be from me
    And the card attached would say, thank you for being a friend.

  2. The real reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess Kickstarter failed to use APK's hosts file.

    1. Re:The real reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You haven't used the internet until you've used it with APK's hosts file.

    2. Re:The real reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      You haven't lived until you have masterbated to Bea Arthur.

    3. Re: The real reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pfft. I was goin to mvps.org before it was cool.

  3. They've been a target of CONservatives... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    for several years no. The Republicans hate the post-corporate world in which we now live. Expect them to continue with more ridiculous attacks on Kickstarter and their investors.

    1. Re:They've been a target of CONservatives... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd say your scenario is... unlikely.

    2. Re:They've been a target of CONservatives... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Considering they have been doing exactly what the OP describes for years, why would you lie to defend them? I guess you support their attacks on Kickstarter. That's the only logical explanation I can think of as to why you're defending such dishonest actions. You, and your fellow CONservatives, stand to gain something from its destruction and the persecution of their investors.

    3. Re:They've been a target of CONservatives... by mark-t · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Or perhaps the person is simply ignorant of any evidence to support such claims which you apparently seem to possess in such abundance. I actually haven't seen anything to support it either, for that matter, so from where I sit, the allegation strikes me more as being an unprovable conspiracy theory, and I would consider the notion as improbable as well.

      Suggesting that someone who simply disbelieves a criticism must somehow be lying to protect them is even at best a variant of ad-hominem, and at worst, indicative of a possibly less than clear grasp of what is actually real and what is not.

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    4. Re:They've been a target of CONservatives... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you sound like a faggot.

    5. Re:They've been a target of CONservatives... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You sound like you masturbate to Bea Arthur.

    6. Re:They've been a target of CONservatives... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As someone who masturbates to Bea Arthur, don't group me with that asshole.

  4. at least .. by thephydes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    they did the right thing and contacted all the people who use KS and advised them to change their login. Unlike Adobe who still haven't contacted me....... With influence comes responsibility - KS has taken responsibility, Adobe never did.

    1. Re:at least .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Unlike Adobe who still haven't contacted me....... With influence comes responsibility - KS has taken responsibility, Adobe never did.

      Not only did Adobe contact me via E-mail very shortly after the breach but they also snail mailed me a physical letter about what happened.

    2. Re: at least .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I got an email from Adobe about 3 months after the breach. Now that's a timely response!

    3. Re:at least .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh, pirates don't get notified. Duuuuh!

      Besides, this place probably was owned long before the cops came and told them so. They take this information has to be free too far like just like any other RMS looney.

    4. Re:at least .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I've backed several Kickstarter projects and I have not received an email.

    5. Re:at least .. by Jarik+C-Bol · · Score: 5, Informative

      Not only did Adobe email me and send me a letter about the whole thing, they gave me a free year subscription to Experian's identity theft protection services.Makes me wonder just how much info they lost about me.

      --
      I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
    6. Re:at least .. by snemarch · · Score: 2

      Considering how many users KS have, there might still be a few mails in the outgoing queue?

      I received the "uh oh, we've been hacked" mail yesterday 22.30, GMT+1.

      --
      Coffee-driven development.
    7. Re:at least .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed, I've already changed my amazon details but I'd like full details as to what was stolen

    8. Re: at least .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      After the breach, Adobe forced me to change my password while Kickstarter only recommended to do so. Adobe's approach was safer on that point.

  5. Was that ALL? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

    Kickstarter stores information about Amazon accounts and the like, too. This could be pretty serious.

    AND, they should be held legally responsible. Really, as a society we have to start doing that.

    1. Re:Was that ALL? by dbc · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ummmm.... no, Amazon stores your Amazon acount info. KS doesn't even store whole credit card numbers.

    2. Re:Was that ALL? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2

      "Ummmm.... no, Amazon stores your Amazon acount info. KS doesn't even store whole credit card numbers."

      Um, yes. In order to actually operate a Kickstarter project, you are required to give them details of an Amazon account. They only accept and transfer money via Amazon.

      You don't give them your password. But the other account details are more pieces of your personal puzzle that thieves can use to try to access various account(s) of yours.

    3. Re:Was that ALL? by _Shad0w_ · · Score: 1

      Given you login to Amazon using your e-mail address...

      --

      Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.

    4. Re:Was that ALL? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      "Given you login to Amazon using your e-mail address..."

      No, you're missing the point. This is how these hackers work, more or less:

      1) They get your account information from one source. Preferably with password (as they did from Kickstarter).

      2) They try that password on the various accounts they have information for. They can also try to brute-force your passwords, or use "social engineering" to get the password for an account or change it to one of their own.

      3) Profit.

      So, yeah... it can be damaging to even just have the name of your Amazon account.

    5. Re:Was that ALL? by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      Um, yes. In order to actually operate a Kickstarter project, you are required to give them details of an Amazon account. They only accept and transfer money via Amazon.

      No, they use Amazon PAYMENTS, which while requiring an Amazon account, does not need the originating site to know it.

      What happens is KickStarter forwards your pledge amount to Amazon. Amazon then asks you to log in and find out your method of payment and all that. It then gives the site back a payment token. Kickstarter uses that payment token to withdraw against the authorized amount (up to the limit which you agreed to when you agreed to the payment - Amazon knows it from the originating site and displays it to you so no shenanigans can take place).

      So no, Kickstarter does not know your Amazon account information. Of course, for a lot of people, their Kickstarter login email is the same as their Amazon login...

    6. Re:Was that ALL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ummmm, no, Kickstarter had a Visa card number stored for me. I've already closed that account however. Anyway, most of the Kickstarter projects I have backed ended up being paid from PayPal which requires a different login. Never have used Amazon in association with Kickstarter.

    7. Re:Was that ALL? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      "No, they use Amazon PAYMENTS, which while requiring an Amazon account, does not need the originating site to know it."

      No shit, Sherlock. I was talking about the person who had the kickstarter project (the payee), not the people making payments. I said so.

  6. No notification yet. by klevin · · Score: 1

    Hmm. I have a Kickstarter account, but I haven't gotten a notification email, so far.

    1. Re:No notification yet. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      consider this article as a notification?

    2. Re:No notification yet. by Mr+Z · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The notifications seem to be going out in waves, slowly. I'm not sure why. Across three folks I know (including myself) with Kickstarter accounts, the emails themselves all seem to have gone out within minutes of each other, but one of them arrived just minutes ago.

      I'm guessing with the volume of emails, it got throttled along the way. You can see this in the Received: headers:

      Received: from o2.e2.kickstarter.com (o2.e2.kickstarter.com. [74.63.202.49])
      by       xx.example.com with SMTP id xxxxxxxxxx
      for <       username@example.com >;
      Sat, 15 Feb 2014 21:49:50 -0800 (PST)
      ...
      Received: by filter-219.sjc1.sendgrid.net with SMTP id       xxxxxxxxxx
      Sat, 15 Feb 2014 21:18:46 +0000 (UTC)
      Received: from MTEzNDg (unknown [10.42.83.122])
      by localhost.localdomain (SG) with HTTP id       xxxxxxxxxx
      for <no-reply@kickstarter.com>; Sat, 15 Feb 2014 21:18:46 +0000 (GMT)

      Notice that the earlier time stamps (corresponding to when the emails were generated) are around 21:18 GMT, but the arrival timestamps are around 21:49 PST, about 8 and a half hours later. And that's about how far apart our emails arrived. I imagine more are in the queue.

      (And yay crapflooders for making it impossible to format things usefully in Slashdot comments.)

      As far as passwords go, I'm not worried about anyone actually hacking my Kickstarter password. It's a password unique to Kickstarter, and it was generated at random.org as a 13 character mixed-case alphanumeric password. Good luck reverse-hashing that. Even if you do, it won't get you much.

      --
      Program Intellivision!
    3. Re:No notification yet. by Zumbs · · Score: 2

      Maybe they want to avoid getting their mail servers marked as spam servers?

      --
      The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head
    4. Re:No notification yet. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sendgrid is definitely throttling. They are an SMTP service provider. Mandrill and Mailgun are other such providers. They generally throttle based on heuristics associated with your account - how long it's been active, good vs bad history of email on your account, rate you normally send at, and what you spend. Have done several projects with Sendgrid and Mandrill, never had any problems with either.

  7. how to piss off an alien/human hybrid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    The 'beasts' share the same scent - how to piss off an alien/human hybrid

            the hybrids carrying filthy spawn (like in the days of Noah) are easy to SNIFF out, literally, they all smell the same when you're in the proper state of mind.

            some of them have eyes which appear to be bugging out of their face.

            even if you can't detect the scent of the hybrids, or 'beasts', inhale deeply whenever the hybrids are close, don't express any emotion, just keep inhaling deeply and make your facial expression be that of deep contemplation.

            when you do this, they know that you know what their true reality is - it's like the movie THEY LIVE where Nada sees the truth through the glasses and confronts them.

            don't confront, just inhale deeply. maybe shake your head and laugh, mumble about stupid aliens but nothing deep.

    1. Re:how to piss off an alien/human hybrid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Beta, you say?

  8. My email was waiting for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Welcome to the decade where big corps realize they can't skimp on security anymore because it costs the banks more time and money to issue cards, and that raises rates for everyone else.

  9. So by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    What does this mean for Star Citizen funders? lol

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    1. Re:So by nschubach · · Score: 1

      The same as it does for any other Kickstarter founder... Actually it may be less since Star Citizen started (and obtained) their goal independently before going on Kickstarter.

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
  10. PKI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why are we not using public private key infrastructure for online logins yet????? It's 2014, most people have been online for nearly twenty years and human beings are still using passwords that have to (generally speaking) be memorized which leads to poor password choices and repetition. This problem should have been solved YEARS ago.

    1. Re:PKI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The same reason sane people aren't using bitcoin: because a secret you store on your hard drive is not much safer than a secret you send encrypted over the 'net. Change the popular method, and you change the popular attacks. It's all an arms race, and if the social problem of selfishness can only be mitigated against so far with technical solutions. There was a time (pre-'80s, obv.) when large groups of intelligent people thought the very idea of computer security was ethically questionable.

    2. Re:PKI by _Shad0w_ · · Score: 1

      Why would you store the secret on your hard drive? Why wouldn't you use something like an eToken or any other PKI token?

      --

      Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.

    3. Re:PKI by Molt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      USB tokens won't work at the moment, too many people accessing the internet using phones and tablets without USB ports.

      --
      404 Not Found: No such file or resource as '.sig'
    4. Re:PKI by cbhacking · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Excuse me? A secret that never leaves my computer, at least not in any plaintext form (encrypt your private keys before exporting them, people!), is *way* more secure than a secret I need to provide over the Internet (even in an encrypted channel) and that the host I'm connecting to needs to store (even in a non-reversibly-encrypted form). If you don't think so, then there is something *very* wrong with the security of your box...

      The way we do passwords now, even if you don't re-use the password, a single compromised host gives the attacker enough information to begin attempting to determine the login credentials of every single user on the site (and in many cases, those same credentials can be used on other sites too). Additionally, attacks can be made much faster using common password dictionaries and so on. In the case of a public-key system, all that the attacker would get is the public keys of every user on the site, but without the corresponding private keys - which they will never obtain from the compromised server, because the client never exposes them to the network - they can't obtain any user's login credentials. True, in the case of persistent malware on the server an attacker could hijack a user's session after login, but they would be unable to prevent the user from logging out or to log in again afterward, and they would be unable to try re-using credentials on other sites the user may have accounts on.

      In fact, using public-key crypto is almost strictly as secure, or more so, than passwords. Sure, an attacker who targets a specific user's machine could potentially steal their secret key when the user unlocks it to log into a site, or steal it in its at-rest form (hopefully, encrypted with a password) and start brute-forcing that encryption. However, such an attacker could also have stolen a user's password database, or keylogged their password as they typed it into a site. If you just want to attack a single user, and you have the ability to compromise one of their hosts, it doesn't matter which system they use. However, if you can only attack a server (as is usually the case), public-key systems are way safer for the users.

      The problem, of course, is how the user moves their secret key(s) from client to client. These days, almost everybody uses a number of different clients (your PCs, your workstations, your phone and/or tablet, your friends' phones, the library's PC, whatever) to access secured resources. There are a number of possible ways to transfer the private key(s) between all those things, but each has downsides. Oh, and the little problem of there not being any standard way (other than TLS client certs, which are not widely supported and arguably not the correct tool here) to use public keys to authenticate with a site right now, so something would need to be standardized and then implemented widely before it would be useful.

      --
      There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
    5. Re:PKI by brunes69 · · Score: 2

      I have a better question. Why does Kickstarter store IDs or passwords AT ALL. Why do they not mandate federation.

      They have Facebook login, but no Google or OpenID login. Why? And if I am using Facebook login then why do I STILL need to create a stupid Kickstarter.com password, I should be able to ONLY use Facebook.

      Why do so few websites do ID federation properly. It is simply one of the best security options we have today, it makes life SO MUCH EASIER for the user, yet no sites properly use it.

    6. Re:PKI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a better question. Why does Kickstarter store IDs or passwords AT ALL. Why do they not mandate federation.

      They have Facebook login, but no Google or OpenID login. Why? And if I am using Facebook login then why do I STILL need to create a stupid Kickstarter.com password, I should be able to ONLY use Facebook.

      Why do so few websites do ID federation properly. It is simply one of the best security options we have today, it makes life SO MUCH EASIER for the user, yet no sites properly use it.

      I don't have Facebook, or Google, or OpenID, or any of those other damn things. I've visited quite a few places where those type of logins were the only way to access the site -- including several online merchants. They didn't get my money. The non-merchant sites didn't get my witty comments or pithy insights.

      Since I got the email from Kickstarter, several of my smaller accounts at places have apparently been probed. They seem to have quickly learned that I don't use the same password everywhere, and moved on to whoever was next on their list.

      Imagine if instead of Kickstarter getting breached, it was Facebook that was attacked successfully. All those "federated" sites would just be handed to the attackers all at the same time. You can put your faith in Zukerberg; I'll remain a paranoid outlying loonie who keeps everything separate. (oh... but it's not paranoia if they are out to get you....)

    7. Re:PKI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I should be able to ONLY use Facebook.

      Facebook is a vile shitstain on the ass of the internet. Anything that makes it easier for Facebook users to leave their ghetto and dirty real people is deplorable.

    8. Re:PKI by godel_56 · · Score: 1

      I have a better question. Why does Kickstarter store IDs or passwords AT ALL. Why do they not mandate federation.

      They have Facebook login, but no Google or OpenID login. Why? And if I am using Facebook login then why do I STILL need to create a stupid Kickstarter.com password, I should be able to ONLY use Facebook.

      Why should we have a system with a single point of failure, when it makes it much harder for intruders if they have to break into every site and account separately?

      Also, fuck Google, Facebook etc. They already have more than enough information about me.

    9. Re:PKI by Cammi · · Score: 1

      Kickstarter website does not have competent IT.

  11. My anus felt breached by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    When Beta first reared its head on this hallowed domain.

    1. Re: My anus felt breached by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you are using beta the wrong way...

  12. hello word by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

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  13. Hash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Encrypted passwords, how? Do they mean salted and hashed, if so, then the summary should say so.

  14. Cosmonaut by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...I thought the lyrics was "you're a pal and a confidant"

  15. Encrypted but unsalted passwords stored by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    From what I've been able to understand from communication with Kickstarter and from their mail, the passwords weren't individually salted.

    Storing encrypted passwords without salt should get whoever's responsible for their security FIRED. That's truly a rookie mistake. Why? Because it's vulnerable to dictionary attacks.

    1. Re: Encrypted but unsalted passwords stored by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They were salted.

    2. Re: Encrypted but unsalted passwords stored by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      According to the email, they note that "older" ones were salted. "Newer" ones use bcrypt.

    3. Re: Encrypted but unsalted passwords stored by Xenx · · Score: 2

      Not sure if arguing that they didn't specifically mention newer ones were salted, but bcrypt itself salts the passwords.

    4. Re: Encrypted but unsalted passwords stored by Dahan · · Score: 1

      And bcrypt is a password hashing function that includes a salt.

  16. Don't forget email addresses too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Kickstarter was nice enough to require you to use email as your login!

  17. Please change your password by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

    and your email address
    and your phone number
    and your mailing address.

    Thank you for being a part of Kickstarter.

  18. Still waiting for the email ... by Cammi · · Score: 1

    Still waiting for the email ...

  19. German Security to the help by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here in the land of Kraut and Wurst we had soemthing called "TAN List" in the past. Simply a sheet of paper with one-time-passwords. We used that to confirm banking transactions.

    Very easy to make this scheme very secure. Why do we need electronic gadgets with half-baked security mechanisms ?