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Business News Digital
Patreon user-database hacked
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 2 October 2015
Crowdfunding-come-creator-subscriptions site Patreon has confirmed that its user information database has been hacked.
Patreon is a website that allows users to ‘subscribe’ to specific creators signed up to the site. A person states how much they wish to pay each time a creator creates something (within certain limits), and that money is then passed over to the creator when their creation is created. Open to all kinds of creators, it has been embraced by some musicians, and was co-founded by Jack Conte, one half of the musical duo Pomplamoose.
In an email yesterday, the firm said that “there was unauthorised access to a Patreon database containing user information”. Hackers had access to names, email addresses and, in some cases, shipping addresses of those using the site, though full credit card numbers are not saved on the firm’s servers so were not accessed. The company added it had “taken immediate measures to prevent future breaches”.
The email added that tax information and passwords “remain safely encrypted”, though users are nevertheless advised to change their password on the platform.
Meanwhile Conte told Billboard: “We are in close touch with law enforcement to minimise risk to our users and we have engaged a third party security firm to inform our response. The operations team at Patreon is working hand in hand with Twitter’s trust and safety team. They have actively suspended accounts that link to the breached data”.
