Have I Been S0ld? Troy Hunt's security website is up for acquisition
Troy Hunt, inventor and operator of the popular security website Have I Been Pwned (HIBP), is putting the service up for sale.
Hunt, a Microsoft Regional Director and MVP for security, created the site in 2013 after Adobe leaked 153 million usernames and weakly encrypted passwords. Users can enter an email address and discover if it is included in the exposed data. You can also enter a password to see if it features in a data breach.
The site was soon extended with data from other breaches and now contains nearly 8 billion records. HIBP publishes an API which gets over 12 million hits a day, most of them checking whether a password is safe to use. Mozilla's Firefox is one of a number of products that integrates with the API to help users choose strong passwords. Commercial subscribers, governments and law enforcement agencies use the service too.
Hunt said in this weeks' announcement that "to date, every line of code, every configuration and every breached record has been handled by me alone. There is no 'HIBP team', there's one guy keeping the whole thing afloat."
He said that maintaining the site has been stressful and has taken him close to burnout. He believes it is time to put the business up for acquisition, which he is doing with KPMG.
The acquisition project is called Project Svalbard, in tribute to a Norwegian effort to store a vault of seeds to protect against future loss. "It sounds like a befitting name, beginning with the obvious analogy of storing a massive quantity of 'units'," Hunt said.
The question everyone will be asking: will the service get worse? Hunt said he will remain part of HIBP and that consumer searches will still be free. The idea is that a bigger organisation will enable him to build out more capabilities.
He also wants to put more effort into changing the behaviour of both individuals and organisations, in respect of their poor security practices.
Hunt has fallen behind, he said, on responsible disclosure – informing organisations that they have been breached. This he called "massively burdensome".
When will it happen? No hurry said, Hunt. "I'm not under any duress (not beyond the high workload, that is) and I've got time to let the acquisition search play out organically and allow it to find the best possible match for the project."
But he does not want to lead a new nonprofit even with sponsorship from other companies, believing that this would increase rather than reduce the stress he is under.
The site performs an excellent, though dispiriting, service. Those of us who have had active email accounts for many years are likely to feature multiple times in the HIBP database. Your correspondent's, for example, is in 20 data breaches including Adobe, Bit.ly, Creative, Disqus, Dropbox, Kickstarter, Last.FM, MySpace and vBulletin, as reported by HIBP.
Sane security today means unique passwords for every site and a password manager, along with other strategies like multi-factor authentication, but take-up is weak as data from services like Microsoft's Office 365 demonstrates.
source theregister
Industry: Cyber Security
Latest Jobs
-
- Security Analyst. End User. UK. Flexible location
- Unknown
- 60000
-
CH7863 Security Analyst. End User £60,000 Security Analyst needed to monitor and manage a security suite of tools within an End User environment. The Security Analyst will be responsible monitoring, configuring, fine tuning, incident management and generally improving the security tool capability. Specific experience with CyberArk, Tripwire Log Center and Tripwire Enterprise is highly desirable). Current experience with Vulnerability management and penetration testing is highly desirable. Specifically the ability to effectively manage 3rd party pen tests. You will be working within a specialist security team reporting to the CISO. Experience working within an end user environment within financial services is highly desirable. Flexible location. This is an exclusive role to DCL Search & Selection. To book a call please use my Calendy link https://calendly.com/chris-holt/arranged-call-with-chris-holt-soc-role-
-
- Head of Penetration Testing
- United Kingdom
- N/A
-
Head of Penetration Testing needed to join a security consultancy that are delivering client facing penetration testing services around Web app and Infrastructure. Looking for someone hands on that is able to manage a highly skilled technical team of testers. 50-60% of the time is expected to be hands on, other duties will include, but not be limited to; leading and managing the day to day running of the team, mentoring, team upskill, recruitment, reporting, escalation, process improvement etc. Flexible location although south east is preferred. Anyone with Check / CREST experience is highly desirable. MUST be able to achieve SC clearance. UK based role. All details kept in confidence.
-
- CONTRACT SOC Manager. London / Birmingham. URGENT Immediate role.
- London
- N/A
-
REF7847 Contract SOC Manager. SC cleared, London / Birmingham. Initial 3 month Contract. SOC Manager needed to for an URGENT 3-4 month CONTRACT. SC clearance is essential. The project is to aid in the setup, implementation and management of resources to help with the initial stand up stages of a new SOC within a greenfield site. This is a short term contract role whilst a permanent hire is brought on over the coming 3 to 4 months. Experience engaging with and managing client stakeholder relationships as well as 3rd party relationships is critical. The role will involve; setting up, implementing and fine tuning the various initial stages of a SOC environment. Experience establishing and building out technical process / operational capability, managing of technical teams (analysts, engineers and architects, creation of policy / playbooks, fine turning is key. SPLUNK is the tooling of choice… Interviewing immediately. Set up a call with me today on https://calendly.com/chris-holt/arranged-call-with-chris-holt-remote-soc-role Direct contact details Chris.Holt@dclsearch.com or 07884666351
-
- SPLUNK Level 3 SOC Consultant, SIEM Splunk, London / Birmingham
- Birmingham
- 55000
-
REF CH7825 Level 3 SOC Consultant, SIEM Splunk, London / Birmingham £55,000 + Level 3 SOC Consultant, SIEM SPLUNK needed. Security Clearance. Permanent role Level 3 SOC Consultant, SIEM SPLUNK needed to join a public sector client. The ability to achieve SC clearance is essential. MUST have experience working with SPLUNK ideally to an Advanced Power User level. Splunk Enterprise Security (ES) knowledge and hands on experience highly desirable. The role will include, but not be limited to; managing and handling incidents end to end, supporting and mentoring level 1 / level 2 staff, supporting the SOC manager in the delivery of the SOC roadmap, engaging with the client stakeholders (other technical teams) as and where needed, use case development, advanced search and reporting etc. The individual MUST currently be living in the UK and be able to achieve UK security clearance. (SC) This is a permanent role To arrange a call with Chris Holt use this calendy link https://calendly.com/chris-holt/arranged-call-with-chris-holt-remote-soc-role Chris.Holt@dclsearch.com