GitHub, which belongs to Microsoft and is an open software development platform, was targeted by some hackers last night. They demand a ransom in order to return the hundreds of resources code that they stole.
The hackers deleted the stored code from 392 GitHub accounts and placed it on their own server. On each account they left a note asking for one payment into a Bitcoins in order to restore the stolen software.
The message reads:
“To get him back lost your code and avoid leaking it: Send us 0,1 Bitcoin (BTC) to our Bitcoin address ES14c7qLb5CYhLMUekctxLgc1FV2Ti9DA and contact us via email at admin@gitsbackup.com with your Git ID and proof of payment.
If you are not sure if we have your data, contact us and we will send you a receipt. Your code has been downloaded and a backup has been created on our servers.
If we do not receive your payment within the next 10 days, we will make the code public or use it differently. "
GitLab Security Director Kathy Wang issued a statement in response to the cyber attacks:
"We have identified the affected accounts and all of these users have been notified. "As a result of our investigation, we have strong evidence that the exposed accounts had the passwords stored as plain text."
Jeremy Galloway, a security researcher at Atlassian, confirmed that a large number of GitHub users have been affected by this hack.
GitHub suggests enabling two-factor authentication to add an extra level of security to your account. See how you can to set it.
