Dangers of the Quora data breach

The dangers of the Quora data breach cannot be understated, especially when the incident reportedly affected up to 100m users!

Just yesterday we wrote about the issue of reusing passwords and user credentials across multiple sites. Doing so can put you at far greater risks than you may even realise. One of the key things it means is that your credentials breached in an attack could be used to break into other platforms you use. Facebook is a prime example with billions of users and a feature that lets you log into other platforms using your Facebook credentials.

On that basis, the dangers of an incident like this Quora one simply cannot be understated.

About the Quora data breach

The question and answer website created by two former Facebook employees was hit by a “malicious third party” who gained access to their systems in December 2018.

Information that exposed in the Quora data breach reportedly included:

• Names;
• Email addresses;
• Passwords (encrypted);
• Data imported from linked networks.

In a statement, the company said:

“We recently discovered that some user data was compromised as a result of unauthorised access to one of our systems by a malicious third party. We are working rapidly to investigate the situation further and take the appropriate steps to prevent such incidents in the future.”

Why the Quora data breach could be very dangerous for some

In the Quora data breach, the key information exposed is often used as access credentials. If a hacker now has your access credentials, they can try and guess if you use accounts on other platforms. If they were to break into other accounts that belong to you, they could steal even more information about you.

You could end up falling victim to fraud or identity theft.

If you use the same credentials to access your Facebook account, you could be in even greater trouble. With the social medial platform often now used to log into other accounts (click here to sing-in with your Facebook account is common now), they could get access to all sorts.

The key takeaways are these:

• Incidents like the Quora data breach cannot be deemed as “small” or “minor” because more personal information or banking data wasn’t compromised; and
• Never reuse your passwords!

You have an online presence, and it can be like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle about your life. If one piece is stolen, it can be used to work out what the bigger picture is.

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