Formspring gets hacked

SOCIAL QUESTION AND ANSWER WEB SITE Formspring has become the latest victim of online hacking, which has resulted in many users' passwords being compromised.

The web site has revealed that 420,000 user passwords have been compromised, and in response it has disabled all of its 28 million users' passwords until they've been changed.

Formspring CEO Ade Olonah acknowledged the issue in a blog post. He said, "We learned this morning that we had a security breach where some user passwords may have been accessed.

"In response to this, we have disabled all users' passwords. We apologize for the inconvenience but prefer to play it safe and have asked all members to reset their passwords.

"Users will be prompted to change their passwords when they log back into Formspring. This is a good time to create a strong password. Here are guidelines we recommend."

With every Formspring user receiving an email from the quirky social network, we can't help but think this could result in a number of inactive users returning to the web site.

The past few months have seen a number of password breaches, including some high-profile hacks including Linkedin and Lastfm. Formspring has included a handy password guide on its blog as a reminder to users that it's important to have a safe password. µ