Variety subscribers were surprised to see over 50 emails sent to them after OurMine hacked the major media publication over the weekend just to test their security.
OurMine is slowly making its name in the hacking industry as they have already hacked several tech executives including Facebook's own Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sundar Pichai. Now, their targets seemed to have changed as they hacked Variety's user base.
Several users have woken up to their emails being bombarded by Variety which contain a simple message regarding the website's security. OurMine sent the emails to Variety's many subscribers asking the site to contact the hacking group to find out how they did it and how they can improve the security, Digital Trends has learned.
Users posted on their social media accounts screenshots of the 50 plus emails that came from Variety. What made it more annoying is that the spam filter did not catch all of them since they came from a reputable site.
OurMine has not spoken yet after the event but the message inside the emails included a supposedly informative video about what happened. Unfortunately, the video has been removed as of this writing.
Variety said in a statement that the email was not sent by their staff and asked users to ignore and delete the said emails that came from OurMine, Mashable reported. The publication said that they already have a team that is resolving the problem regarding the unauthorized communications that happened.
To ease the subscribers, Variety also confirmed that no personal data of their users were accessed during the hack. There is no evidence of any stolen data and whatnot but the hackers could have still done so without leaving a trace.
"You may have received one or more emails from Variety with the subject line #Ourmine. Variety did not send those emails; please ignore and delete them. We are working diligently to contain the matter and will update you when the issues have been resolved," Variety said in a statement.
Another interesting statement from Variety is their view of OurMine. The publication said that the hacking group did not attempt to shut down their websites or mess with their data but rather wanted to raise awareness regarding cybersecurity.