As a major player in news and media, I wouldn’t be surprised that hackers would try to hack the Washington Post. In the last three years, this attack marks the third time that the company has been the target of hackers. However, this time around, the people at Washington Post believe that the hackers had a specific target in mind. Your guess is as good as mine. It’s the NSA leaked documents courtesy of the whistleblower, Edward Snowden, who has been in the spotlight for the past several months. Everyone wants to see what exactly Snowden has leaked to the Washington Post. This makes the people from the Washington Post think that the United States or United Kingdom government is behind these attacks. Of course, the government desperately wants to get their hands on these leaked documents. They could be big secrets, or it could all be just a bluff.

Based on the statement of the company officials, a lot of usernames along with the passwords were stolen. The reason behind this is that they could use these to log in the system at a future in order to access and view these leaked documents. Of course, senior staff members and editors are the only ones allowed to view these sensitive documents. Their passwords could have easily been compromised in the attack and a major overhaul is in place.

According to Mandiant, the security contractor hired by the Washington Post, the attack was only focused on the login credentials. Aside from that, there were no other information stolen or leaked. This only happened in a span of a few days. According to officials, the investigation is still ongoing, but it looks like the attack was brief and very specific.

Since the Washington Post knows that these credentials are crucial, they have an encryption that protects these login details. However, the post believes that these hackers have the tools and enough computing power to pry the encrypted login credentials open in just a matter of time. If they are able to crack it, then surely, the Washington Post needs a major reset of all the stolen passwords and credentials.

The good news in this incident is that the employees’ data were all intact. There was no breach when it comes to their addresses, Social Security numbers, personal information, and other kinds of data. Needless to say, the leaked Snowden NSA files are also secure, according to the investigation. However, this should be a lesson learned for the Post to be ready for these attacks. They need to improve their defenses online since they have these leaked NSA documents.

If you don’t want to be a victim of these hackers, then you should know how to protect yourself. We all know that the Washington Post is a big name in the industry. If the hackers could get in their system, they could easily get in your home networks as well. Your computer’s privacy is at risk. To stay hidden from these hackers, you need a VPN Service Provider like Faceless.me. When you connect through a VPN, the connection becomes encrypted and much more secure. No one can access your data and computer in the process.