Job website breached by hackers

13:30 27th January 2009

Job website Monster has revealed that it has been breached by hackers and had a range of personal information stolen.

The information lost includes phone numbers, email addresses, names, IDs and passwords relating to the site. It says that no CVs were stolen and has sought to reassure its users that it does not normally collect more sensitive information such as banking details and so these are unavailable to hackers.

The site has urged users to change their password as a precaution, although they may now be prompted to do this when they next sign on.

Patrick Manzo, senior vice president and global chief privacy officer for Monster Worldwide, said: "As a further precaution, we want to remind you that an email address could be used to target 'phishing' emails."

Mr Manzo added that Monster would not send out emails asking for confirmation of personal details.

Monster is a popular website used by job-hunters across the world. IT training could help people to use job websites more effectively and set up daily bulletins to be sent to their inbox.

The website currently stores more than 150 million CVs.