EurekAlert took down its website the night before yesterday after an incident that the service called a “serious security breach.”
All links pointing to the website now redirect to a page informing users about the incident. The page is dated September 13, 2016, at 10:10 PM.
In a statement posted on its homepage, EurekAlert said it became aware of the potential security breach on September 11, and acting immediately, its staff began preparing to reset passwords for all user accounts.
A subsequent investigation revealed that someone had attempted to hack the service on September 9th.
EurekAlert, which is a science news magazine run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), holds information about its subscribers, as well as scientific research, which scholars submit to the website and must be published by a specific date.
Ginger Pinholster, AAAS's Chief Communications Officer and Director, says that while EurekAlert staff worked to reset users' passwords, the hacker began publishing (banned) news articles based on unpublished research.
The executives quickly identified the stolen files and shut down the website to investigate the attack in depth and implement some new security protocols.
EurekAlert says that only passwords from users' accounts appear to be at risk, but not financial information from their registration.
