On Monday, the web-hosting giant GoDaddy announced that it had suffered a data breach affecting up to 1.2 million of its customers.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Demetrius Comes, GoDaddy’s chief information security officer, clarified the nature of the breach and what steps GoDaddy has taken to resolve the situation.

Comes explained how, on November 17, the company discovered that “an unauthorized third party” had managed to use a compromised password to gain access to old source code for its Managed WordPress platform — the system the company uses to host and manage its customers’ WordPress websites.

1.2 million email addresses and customer numbers exposed

The hacker was able to access massive amounts of sensitive customer data, including up to 1.2 million active and inactive customers’ email addresses and customer numbers. Usernames and passwords were also compromised — original WordPress administrative account passwords, and usernames and passwords linked to customers’ databases and file management systems. As a precautionary measure, GoDaddy has reset any at-risk passwords.

A subset of active customers also had their SSL private keys exposed. An SSL private key is an essential file used for encrypting and decrypting data sent between a website’s server and its users. Currently, GoDaddy is still in the process of issuing new SSL private keys to affected customers.

While the breach wasn’t discovered until mid-November, GoDaddy determined through its investigation that the hacker had been able to access its system since September 6^th. After identification of the incident, the company immediately blocked the hacker’s access.

GoDaddy warned that the exposure of its customers’ email addresses presented an increased risk of phishing attacks.

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