Late last month, the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) experienced a massive data breach affecting 100,000 of its members. The breach left the usernames and passwords of its members exposed in plain text for a month.
An independent security researcher discovered the breach and notified the organization on September 24. On September 25, the IEEE confirmed the breach.
The breach is an embarrassment for the IEEE, which describes itself on its website as:
"... the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity."
Basic data security methods include the encryption of sign-in credentials. CSO Online reported:
"Torsten George, vice president of worldwide marketing and products for Agiliance, a security risk management firm, called it 'plain stupid.' Paul Ducklin, writing at Sophos' Naked Security blog, called it, 'a veritable security disaster'... A number of IEEE members were also failing to use basic security... seven of the top-10 most popular passwords were combinations of the number string '1234567890,' in order. Others in the top 20 included 'password' and 'admin'..."
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