Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter has announced its website has been hacked, though it assures users no credit card data was compromised.
“On Wednesday night, law enforcement officials contacted Kickstarter and alerted us that hackers had sought and gained unauthorized access to some of our customers’ data,” said Yancey Strickler, chief executive officer (CEO) of Kickstarter, in a blog post.
“We immediately closed the security breach and began strengthening security measures throughout the Kickstarter system.
“No credit card data of any kind was accessed by hackers. There is no evidence of unauthorised activity of any kind on all but two Kickstarter user accounts.”
However, customer data including encrypted passwords, telephone numbers, usernames and mailing data was accessed.
“Actual passwords were not revealed, however it is possible for a malicious person with enough computing power to guess and crack an encrypted password, particularly a weak or obvious one,” Strickler said.
The company has advised users to change their passwords for their Kickstarter accounts as well as accounts that also make use of the password.
The company was started in 2009 as a way to back creative projects. It has raised over US$980 million and successfully funded over 50,000 projects.
