6 Million Chinese Programmers Exposed After ‘Software Developer Network’ Breach

A number of 6 million programmers are busy changing their passwords after a hacker managed to breach the safety mechanisms implemented by the Chinese Software Developer Network (community.csdn.net), one of the biggest software communities in China. 

According to The Hacker News, a file containing usernames, clear-text passwords and email addresses was posted online on file-sharing and social media websites for anyone to see.

I have to make two observations regarding this incident.

First, it’s highly unfortunate that someone responsible for so much information is so irresponsible to store customer passwords in clear text.

Secondly, unlike other countries where a major data leak involves just over 10,000 individuals, in China, such a breach can have a catastrophic outcome. In Finland, 16,000 exposed users seems a lot, but if we compare it to this situation, the number seems almost negligible.