Russian hacktivists take on CNET for a supposedly good cause

Russian hacker collective W0rm claims to have broken into the tech publication’s servers and stolen a database of registered readers’ usernames and passwords.

CNET's high profile is what allegedly motivated the hacktivists to target the site. "[W]e are driven to make the Internet a better and safer [place] rather than a desire to protect copyright," W0rm said in a Twitter exchange on July 14. "I want to note that the experts responsible for bezopastnost [security] in cnet very good work but not without flaws."

The readers’ passwords were encrypted.

A CBS Interactive spokeswoman said that "a few servers were accessed" by the intruder. The company owns CNET.

“W0rm said it found its way into CNET's servers through a security hole in CNET.com's implementation of the Symfony PHP framework, a popular programming tool that provides a skeleton on which developers can construct a complex website,” CNET reports.

W0rm tweeted at one point that it would sell the database for 1 bitcoin -- around $622. But the group's spokesperson said they offered to sell the database to gain attention -- "nothing more."