Monster cock-up for 4.5 million job seekers

Online recruitment site Monster.com has suffered a massive security breach; with the personal details of four and a half million of its users stolen in yet another successful hacking attack.

Monster.com’s shaky security history

In 2007, monster’s security was compromised, when the details of over a million users were downloaded onto servers in Eastern Europe.  This latest attack, looks certain to dent confidence in the integrity of their security; during what is already an extremely challenging time for the recruitment industry.

Monster’s warning

According to a statement from monster.com’s Patrick Manzo, the stolen data consists of; “user names, passwords, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses, alongside demographic data, birth dates, gender and ethnicity”. Anyone who has sent their details into monster should be extra vigilant for phishing attacks.

User name and password advice

One of the ways this data can be used by the hackers, is if the user has other online accounts, which they use the same user name / password for.  If you are a monster user – make sure you change the passwords of all other online accounts you have, which use the same login details as your monster account.