After a suspicious post appeared on the HardwareZone forum on Sunday, an internal investigation by site owner SPH Magazines revealed that the accounts of 685 000 users had been compromised by a data breach.
The investigation has revealed that a senior moderator’s account had been compromised by an unidentified hacker since September 2017. According to SPH Magazines, the hacker was then able to access user data which included names, email addresses, user IDs, and possibly other optional data fields. NRIC numbers, telephone numbers and addresses had, however, been purged as part of compliance with Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) guidelines in 2015, meaning these details have not been compromised.
SPH Magazines have advised forum users to change their forum account passwords, and have engaged security consultants to review the forum’s system.
A police report has been lodged and the PDPC has been informed, and an official statement and apology released by SPH Magazine.
