On December 14 at 8:00 PM CT, a cybercriminal gained access to one of Ars and for the next hour attempted to gain access to a more centralized system.
At 20:52, he succeeded thanks to information gathered from a backup file. The next day, at 14:13, the hacker returned to the main server and replaced the main Ars with a page that broadcasts a song by the band Dual Core. This song, “All the Things,” states in the chorus:
Drink all the booze,
hack all the things!
Fortunately, the hacker did not achieve what the chorus says, as by 14:29, the ARS had restored normal operation. On the same day, all internal passwords and certificates were changed and the server's security was strengthened.
The logs show the hacker 's movements through Ars ' servers and show that the hacker had the opportunity to copy the user database. This database does not contain information about Ars 's subscription payments , but it does contain user email addresses and passwords. These passwords, however, are stored in hashed form (using 2048 iterations of the MD5 algorithm and reinforced with a random string of characters).
Ars officials urge all its readers, especially those who use the passwords they have on Ars and other websites, to change their passwords immediately.
