444: intruders entered the TechFUL programming skills service via a development server, putting about 45,000 user accounts at risk, with a ransom demand

1. 2024-12-11

   It received an alert email from its cloud management company about suspicious network activity. [1]

2. 2024-12-25

   It announced the case. The investigation found that a development server with flawed access control had been breached from outside, and that the production database used in development might have been compromised. A message demanding a ransom to keep data from being published was also found. [1] [2]

The accounts at risk are 45,576 individual TechFUL users who registered on or before August 13, 2023, plus 475 school accounts and 264 company accounts. Passwords were hashed, but it urged password changes because they could be cracked. [1]