Flash! Booksformykindle.com hacked?
I’ve written about The Kindle Lending Club, one of a few places that have appeared in the wake of Amazon’s enabling of lending for Kindle books.
The other one I think I’ve heard about the most is
http://www.booksformykindle.com
I hadn’t visited it, but it appears tonight it has been hacked. Going to the site just gets you a hacker sign (thanks to Janean Sparks in the Amazon Kindle community for the heads up).
If it’s actually been hacked, I feel bad for them.
Some of you may have used the site, of course. Are you at any risk? Well, I would think the only information about you they could have gotten is your e-mail address…I think that’s the only personal information (besides your name?) you might have put there.
Amazon would have eventually made them change the domain…they have asked people with “Kindle” in the domain name to change it before. This may precipitate that move.
Regardless, it’s always unfortunate when someone’s site is hacked by someone else, just for the point of defacing it.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
February 9, 2011 at 9:47 pm |
Yes, we were hacked. Was a back door on one of our other sites that was on the same server. We closed all doors, but more importantly we moved booksformykindle to a new server shortly after the hack. There was NO data at risk, the hack was a simple defacing of the home page. Regardless, we also took precautions to change all server passwords, put the new server through a complete virus scan … all has been well since. BTW – did you hear about the NASDQ hack? Seems that nothing is safe these days!
February 9, 2011 at 11:30 pm |
Thanks for writing, Len!
I appreciate you taking the time to let me and my readers know what happened!
I’m glad it wasn’t any worse than it was, but it must have felt like a real violation.
Yes, I’d heard about NASDAQ…I guess that puts you in good company…
I hear good things from your users…nice of you to check in here.
March 4, 2011 at 1:21 am |
I’d like to point out that [name removed] (either its staff or members) has recently signed up for BookLending.com services and then did the following: Pretended to have books for loan, meaning they could see site users’ e-mails, which they gathered up and then used to send out a mass invite to [name removed]. In the e-mail, it directly says that its competitor, BookLending.com (formerly KindleLendingClub.com) is essentially a bad, impersonal site, and to try out [name removed]. I assume that it was a member of their staff, since they never responded to e-mails and deleted questions about it that I’d posted on their forum (after signing up – since I had to), and because the invite came directly from [name removed]. BookLending confirmed that at least 700 e-mails were obtained this way.
Readers should know about this. It not only messed up the BookLending system but also really is a violation of trust. Many people expected books that never came, harming BookLending’s service and reputation.
March 4, 2011 at 5:50 pm |
Thanks for writing, chrisl!
I really appreciate your concern about this. I typically post comments quickly, but you may have noticed I didn’t do this one right away. I didn’t personally receive either e-mail, so I was looking for ways to independently verify the story.
There is this on BookLending.com’s Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/BookLending/posts/168514209867324
They also removed the name of the entity that allegedly sent e-mails to BookLending.com members.
BookLending.com has contacted everybody affected, I believe, so those people have been alerted to the issue.
I’ve interviewed Catherine MacDonald of BookLending.com. I was sorry to hear the reports about this happening, and I want to respect the fact that they chose not to pubicly identify the other entity on their Facebook page. In a case like this, it can hurt the injured party more and help the aggressor by giving it more publicity.
March 4, 2011 at 3:11 am |
You should feel bad for the competition, since their system was screwed up and their e-mail addresses skimmed by [name removed] staff.
March 4, 2011 at 7:06 pm |
I did not mean to post twice (sort of). I didn’t think it took my first comment.
I respect that they didn’t publicly name names, but it’s pretty disheartening that they’re adding members and not even discussing it. If it were a rogue staffer, I’d think they’d say something. If it were part of their plan, well, I guess it makes sense.