Nvidia Forums Hacked, User Data Compromised

Nvidia has suspended forum operations in order to investigate an unauthorized breach.

The breach comes with some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that Nvidia's early investigation has concluded hackers managed to steal usernames, email addresses, passwords and public profile information.

The good news is that Nvidia actually encrypts their stored passwords, which means only hashed passwords with a random salt value were accessed. As a precautionary measure, Nvidia is reseting all forum passwords and advising users to change identical passwords on other websites.

Since email addresses were accessed, Nvidia stresses users not to give sensitive information to anybody impersonating an Nvidia employee over email.

Nvidia will keep us updated on the status of the forums here.

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Top Comments

21

skaz , July 14, 2012 11:49 PM

If someone from nvidia reads this. Thank you for encrypting your stored passwords =)

Such a necessary precaution that not all companies do.
14

blazorthon , July 14, 2012 11:13 PM

At least some company has their mind at least partially on the security of data stored on their sites. It would have been better to have been able to not get hacked in the first place, but letting hackers get away with nothing more than hashed and salted data is a fairly close second place.

Other Comments

14

blazorthon , July 14, 2012 11:13 PM

At least some company has their mind at least partially on the security of data stored on their sites. It would have been better to have been able to not get hacked in the first place, but letting hackers get away with nothing more than hashed and salted data is a fairly close second place.
-5

omnimodis78 , July 14, 2012 11:45 PM

Billy, why not just put that link you provided at the end of your "article" and leave it at that, because you failed to write anything of value here. Clearly you took just that one post by nvidia as your source, and ran with it. You neglected to mention, for example, that the site has been down for over a week, that initially the single paragraph on the site simply stated "technical problems", and so forth. I mean if you get paid for writing tech news, at least provide one piece of info that is not directly taken from the source and show your employers that you're putting some effort into your work.
21

skaz , July 14, 2012 11:49 PM

If someone from nvidia reads this. Thank you for encrypting your stored passwords =)

Such a necessary precaution that not all companies do.
-14

bin1127 , July 15, 2012 1:04 AM

the encryption key is probably 123456.
8

blazorthon , July 15, 2012 1:17 AM

bin1127the encryption key is probably 123456.

It probably isn't.
8

kaisellgren , July 15, 2012 1:35 AM

"Nvidia actually encrypts their stored passwords"

It's not encrypting, it's hashing, two different concepts.
4

sykozis , July 15, 2012 1:49 AM

omnimodis78Billy, why not just put that link you provided at the end of your "article" and leave it at that, because you failed to write anything of value here. Clearly you took just that one post by nvidia as your source, and ran with it. You neglected to mention, for example, that the site has been down for over a week, that initially the single paragraph on the site simply stated "technical problems", and so forth. I mean if you get paid for writing tech news, at least provide one piece of info that is not directly taken from the source and show your employers that you're putting some effort into your work.

This was posted else where earlier in the week anyway.... Tom's is always a few days behind on reporting anything.
5

maqsabre , July 15, 2012 2:09 AM

these days too many incidents of security breaches are taking place, especially with big companies
3

freggo , July 15, 2012 2:27 AM

maqsabrethese days too many incidents of security breaches are taking place, especially with big companies

You just don't hear of the 'little' incidents.
3

blazorthon , July 15, 2012 2:39 AM

freggoYou just don't hear of the 'little' incidents.

Perhaps, but I think that the point is that we hear of far more breaches now than even just this time last year.
5

otacon72 , July 15, 2012 2:41 AM

...that's why my profile info consists of John Smith 1234 Anywhere Street and I use a throw away hotmail account when I sign up for forums. If you put your real info and use a primary email address you're an idiot.
-3

master_chen , July 15, 2012 2:45 AM

*Meanwhile, at Radeon*
2

blazorthon , July 15, 2012 2:54 AM

john_4Makes me think that it's not the public doing some of it. Corporate espionage or even commie governments where they own all the companies, aka China.

Communism is not necessarily bad. Mocking them by calling them commies is discrimination. Whether or not they're doing any of it is not in question because we know that they and others do it, but that's not related to communism. Our own government is no better and does the same to others.
1

amuffin , July 15, 2012 3:12 AM

Now, let's hope THG doesn't get hacked.
-2

IndignantSkeptic , July 15, 2012 4:40 AM

Why the hell does this keep happening? and it's happening to so many top tech-savvy companies also. I mean if they can't have a hack-proof system then nobody can. That's very worrying.
-4

Mousemonkey , July 15, 2012 4:57 AM

Quote:
*Meanwhile, at Radeon*

They are feeling left out because they now know that not only do serious gamers avoid them but the hackers can't even be bothered to take a look at their wares!
4

ElMoIsEviL , July 15, 2012 5:38 AM

kaisellgren"Nvidia actually encrypts their stored passwords"It's not encrypting, it's hashing, two different concepts.

master_chen*Meanwhile, at Radeon*

Considering Radeon cards are masters of compute with GCN (especially Hashing)... it shouldn't take to long for hackers to use Radeon render farms to crack the key and unlock all of the passwords.

MousemonkeyThey are feeling left out because they now know that not only do serious gamers avoid them but the hackers can't even be bothered to take a look at their wares!

I find the combination of "Serious" and "Gamer" funny. I make money with my compute abilities as well as play games. I make bitcoins/litecoins. I can trade them for Gold, Silver, USD, CAD etc.

I also play a whole slew of games and don't have any driver issues attributed to my 7970s. I do, however, have driver issues with my nVIDIA cards. I'm not the only one...

"Nvidia Display driver stopped responding and has recovered"

Must be VERY familiar to nVIDIA users.
2

Vladislaus , July 15, 2012 5:49 AM

blazorthonCommunism is not necessarily bad. Mocking them by calling them commies is discrimination. Whether or not they're doing any of it is not in question because we know that they and others do it, but that's not related to communism. Our own government is no better and does the same to others.

Not to mention that China is everything but a communist society.
1

blazorthon , July 15, 2012 5:59 AM

MousemonkeyThey are feeling left out because they now know that not only do serious gamers avoid them but the hackers can't even be bothered to take a look at their wares!

ElMoIsEviLConsidering Radeon cards are masters of compute with GCN (especially Hashing)... it shouldn't take to long for hackers to use Radeon render farms to crack the key and unlock all of the passwords.I find the combination of "Serious" and "Gamer" funny. I make money with my compute abilities as well as play games. I make bitcoins/litecoins. I can trade them for Gold, Silver, USD, CAD etc.I also play a whole slew of games and don't have any driver issues attributed to my 7970s. I do, however, have driver issues with my nVIDIA cards. I'm not the only one..."Nvidia Display driver stopped responding and has recovered"Must be VERY familiar to nVIDIA users.

Just had to try starting a fanboy fight, huh Mousemonkey...

VladislausNot to mention that China is everything but a communist society.

http://teachabroadchina.com/china-not-communist-country-ccp/

Good point.
7

schnitter , July 15, 2012 6:13 AM

Nvidia, please teach some of your security skills to Sony.

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