Quote:The VPN provider known as LimeVPN has been hit with a hack affecting 69,400 user records, according to researchers.
 
A hacker claims to have stolen the company’s entire customer database before knocking its website offline (Threatpost confirmed that as of press time, the website was down). The stolen records consist of user names, passwords in plain text, IP addresses and billing information, according to PrivacySharks. Researchers added the attack also included public and private keys of LimeVPN users.
 
“The hacker informed us that they have the private keys of every user, which is a serious security issue as it means they can easily decrypt every LimeVPN user’s traffic,” the firm said in a posting.
 
The potential for decryption is worrying, experts say, given that VPNs tunnel all of their users’ internet traffic, which is a potential gold mine of information for cyberattackers.
 
The whole purported cache has been put up for sale on the hacker destination RaidForums. The hacker, who goes by the handle “slashx,” originally said the database consisted of 10,000 records for $400 (on Tuesday) before expanding the tally (on Wednesday). Slashx told researchers that the heist was carried out via a security breach rather than any connection with an insider threat or older hack.
 
Then, on Thursday, the site went offline — with an apparent malware infection in play. “Worryingly, our access was blocked by Malwarebytes [antivirus protection] due to a potential trojan found on the site,” PrivacySharks said.