Freenode’s IRC server was compromised and passwords were possibly breached by unidentified hackers, Freenode said in a online notice to its users. It has also warned all its users that they should reset their passwords as a precaution. The security breach was identified on Saturday, as a notice by Freenode explains. “Earlier today the freenode infra team noticed an anomaly on a single IRC server. We have since identified that this was indicative of the server being compromised by an unknown third party,” “We immediately started an investigation to map the extent of the problem and located similar issues with several other machines and have taken those offline. For now, since network traffic may have been sniffed, we recommend that everyone change their NickServ password as a precaution.” “Since traffic may have been sniffed, you may also wish to consider any channel keys or similar secret information exchanged over the network,” they added, and promised to keep users updated on the situation. If you are using Freenode it is recommended to change your passwords immediately.
