PIXABAY, PETELINFORTHEurekAlert, a press release distribution service from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), has been hacked and as a result is temporarily offline. In emails sent to registered users throughout the day, AAAS confirmed that “registrants’ usernames and passwords were compromised” during a security breach the organization believes occurred on September 9.
“We do not know the identity of the hacker,” AAAS spokesperson Ginger Pinholster told The Scientist in an email. The individual, she continued, was associated with a now-inactive Twitter account, @Eurekek. “We did notify Twitter, requesting that they notify authorities if they could uncover the person’s identity,” Pinholster wrote.
Pinholster confirmed to The Scientist that AAAS learned of the hack from journalist Philipp Hummel. The suspected hacker first contacted Hummel in a Twitter direct message on September 11. In July, Hummel inadvertently broke an embargo involving a EurekAlert-hosted press release. As a result, AAAS informed Hummel that his activity on the site would be monitored for a probationary period set to end next month, he said. In a post at the Berlin-based publication Die Welt, ...
