Hacker Breaks Into Stack Overflow Q&A Site, No Evidence of Data Breach

              Stack Overflow, one of the largest question and answer site for programmers, revealed today that an unknown hacker(s) managed to gain unauthorized access to its production systems on May 11, 2019.

Founded by Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky in 2008, Stack Overflow is the flagship site of the Stack Exchange Network. With 10 million registered users and over 50 million unique visitors every month, Stack Overflow is very popular among professional and enthusiast programmers.

Question — Have my account password, profile data, or online activity on Stack Overflow website also been compromised?

Answer — There is 'no evidence' that users' data was accessed.


In a short note published by Mary Ferguson, VP of Engineering at Stack Overflow, the company confirmed the breach but said it did not find any evidence that hackers accessed customers' accounts or any user data.

"Over the weekend, there was an attack on Stack Overflow," Ferguson said. "We have confirmed that some level of production access was gained on May 11."

Though the company did not share details on how attackers were able to breach Stack Overflow and the actual extent of the breach, Stack Overflow said the company is patching all known vulnerabilities.

"We discovered and investigated the extent of the access and are addressing all known vulnerabilities," Ferguson said.

"We have not identified any breach of customer or user data. Our customers' and users' security is of the utmost importance to us."

However, Stack Overflow has promised to share more information about the incident after its investigation is completed.

"Our customers' and users' security is of the utmost importance to us. After we conclude our investigation cycle, we will provide more information," Ferguson added.

Late last year, another popular question and answer website Quora suffered a massive data breach with hackers gaining access to sensitive information of about 100 million of its users, including their names, email addresses, hashed password, and personal messages.

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