Quora, the Q. And a. Site, Says Data Breach Affected 100 Million Users |
Adam DAngelo Quoras chief executive in 2011 It is our responsibility to make sure things like this dont happen and we failed to meet that responsibility he said of the data breach Matthew Staver Bloomberg Users of Quora the question-and-answer site are asking today Did my personal data just get stolen The social platform said late Monday that the account information and private messages of around 100 million users may have been exposed when its computer systems were compromised by a malicious third party Quora discovered the data breach on Friday the companys chief executive Adam DAngelo wrote in a blog post and it is still investigating how it happened It is our responsibility to make sure things like this dont happen and we failed to meet that responsibility Mr DAngelo wrote The company noted that the incident was unlikely to result in identity theft as the site does not collect sensitive information such as credit card or Social Security numbers Still coming less than a week after the hotel chain Marriott announced that hackers had stolen the personal data of up to 500 million guests the incident serves as another reminder that a vast and expanding swath of our lives is vulnerable to digital intrusion Quora commands a huge audience The company says that 300 million people around the world use its site at least once a month to ask and answer questions about politics faith calculus unrequited love the meaning of life and more By comparison Twitter claims 326 million monthly active users But since it blasted onto the social media landscape in 2010 igniting a blaze of interest among tech company employees Quora has not become the mainstream cultural force that Twitter has for better or for worse That is perhaps why some Quora users reacted to news of the security breach with surprise not that their account information may have been stolen by malicious actors but that they had a Quora account in the first place The company seemed to acknowledge such reactions on Monday A page of frequently asked questions about the attack includes the query I didnt know I had a Quora account How is it that my email or information was exposed Its answer You may have signed up for Quora some time ago While you might not have regularly visited or used Quora your account remained