Opera informed the public yesterday that it detected an attack on the company’s server used for the Opera Sync system.
Earlier this week, we detected signs of an attack where access was gained to the Opera sync system. This attack was quickly blocked. Our investigations are ongoing, but we believe some data, including some of our sync users’ passwords and account information, such as login names, may have been compromised.
Opera Sync is Opera’s synchronization feature. Local data such as login data, bookmarks or tabs is synced with Opera’s remote server so that the data is available on any device you sign in with.
The sheer volume of data makes browser sync servers a prime target for attackers much like cloud password managers are.
Data is protected by the user’s password but if that password can be guessed or cracked, it provides the attacker with all information stored within.
Opera notes that it only stores encrypted or hashed and salted passwords, but that it has reset all Opoera sync account passwords “as a precaution”.
All Opera Sync users affected by the breach have been informed about it via email. The email asks users to change the password to their Sync account as soon as possible.
Users are also asked to reset passwords on any third-party site they have stored as login data on Opera Sync as a precaution.
If you are affected by the issue, head over to the password reset page right away to create a new password for the Opera Sync account.
- Open the Reset Password page on the Opera website.
- Enter your username or email in the form.
- Click on the Reset password button to start the process.
You will receive an email with a link pointing to a page where you may change the account password.
According to Opera Software, about 0.5% of all users of the browser make use of Opera Sync. That’s 1.7 million in total based on a user base of about 350 million people last month.
Closing Words
Seems to be password reset week. Dropbox reset passwords of some of the company’s users as well yesterday.
Users who are using Opera Sync to store third-party login information will have to spend some time resetting passwords on various services they are a member of.
Now You: Are you affected by the issue?