Post Problem

Job seekers received an unexpected and unwelcome response from The Washington Post last week, when the paper alerted users of its job ad site that it had suffered a data breach.

The hackers obtained usernames and email addresses for job seekers. They did not get passwords or other personal information, the Post said in a notice on its website July 7.

Hackers breached the site twice: once on June 27 and again on June 28. In all, they obtained the personal information of roughly 1.27 million users.

The Post warned that users may receive more unsolicited spam email following the breach, but said their accounts at the job ad site are again secure. "We have implemented additional measures to prevent against a similar attack in the future … in addition, we are conducting a thorough audit of the security of the Jobs site," the Post said in its notice.