photo.net has been hacked, I presume

[roberturban]

I just received SPAM to the address I created exclusively to register my photo.net account. I do not use this address for anything else. Therefore, the most likely explanation is that photo.net has been hacked and the user database was stolen.

Can someone from photo.net comment?

Rob

[Sanford]

OK here...so far.

[Sandy Vongries]

Nothing here either, so far yours is the only complaint received.

[William Michael]

I am not "from photo.net" - i.e. I do not represent Photo.net and I am not employed by them.

I see neither see evidence of the data based having been tampered nor evidence of support technical activity which would typically be a response to hacking.

My understanding is that spammers can employ a few different procedures to harvest email addresses which are not limited to stealing emails contained in data bases; one of those methods is employing software to generate email addresses.        

There was a scare a few years ago that the data base was hacked when some members got spam emails. The data base was not hacked - though that assumption was continued on a site help thread for a long time.

As Sandy mentioned, yours appears the only complaint received so far, which is unfortunate for you. If there is not (and I do hope there is not) a raft of members receiving spam emails, then I think we might assume that rather than database stealing, your email was obtained or generated by another method.

Without going into details in this public forum, email addresses, like passwords, can be simple or complex and there is a range in between. Simple email addresses are more likely to be generated by email generating software employed by sophisticated spamming procedures. Exclusivity of the use of an email address does not necessarily make it secure.

I trust this assists. 

William