INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Thinkful, an online education site for developers, has confirmed a data breach, just days after it confirmed it would be acquired.
We
recently discovered that an unauthorized party may have gained access to certain Thinkful company credentials so, out of an abundance of
caution, we are notifying all of our users,& said Erin Rosenblatt, the company vice-president of operations, in an email to users.
As soon
as we discovered this unauthorized access, we promptly changed the credentials, took additional steps to enhance the security measures we
have in place, and initiated a full investigation,& the executive said.
At the time of writing, there has been no public acknowledgement of
the breach beyond the email to users.
Thinkful, based in Brooklyn, New York, provides education and training for developers and programmers
The company claims the vast majority of its graduates get jobs in their field of study within a half-year of finishing their program
Earlier this month, education tech giant Chegg bought Thinkful for $80 million in cash.
But the company would not say when the breach
happened — or if Chegg knew of the data breach prior to the acquisition announcement.
A spokesperson for Chegg did not respond to a
Thinkful spokesperson Catherine Zuppe did not respond to several emails of questions about the breach.
The email to users said the stolen
credentials could not have granted the hacker access to certain information, such as government-issued IDs and Social Security numbers, or
But although the company said it seen &no evidence& of any unauthorized access to users& account data, it did not rule out any improper
access to user data.
Thinkful said it is requiring all users to change their passwords.
We also asked Thinkful what security measures it has
employed since the credentials breach, such as employing two-factor authentication, but did not hear back.
Just months earlier, Chegg
confirmed a data breach, which forced the online technology giant to reset the passwords of its 40 million users.
At least Thinkful is now
in good company.
Chegg resets 40 million user passwords after data breach
