SINGAPORE, Feb 21 — Local online technology portal HardwareZone (HWZ) has been hit by a security breach that affected around 685,000 registered users.

SPH Magazines said in a statement yesterday that a "Senior Moderator’s account had been compromised by an unidentified hacker and used to view approximately 685,000 registered user profiles since September 2017”.

"Arising from a suspicious posting on HardwareZone Forum website on Feb 18, an investigation was immediately launched to ascertain whether a security breach on the HardwareZone Forum site occurred,” the statement added.

HardwareZone’s investigations found that the hacker "used the compromised credentials to impersonate the Senior Moderator to retrieve user profile data which comprised name, email address and user ID, and possible optional data fields”.

SPH Magazines, however, said the database "does not contain NRIC numbers, telephone numbers and addresses as these were purged in line with the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) Guidelines in July 2015”.

"As a matter of precaution, forum users were advised to change their forum account password,” the company added.

"SPH Magazines, which owns the HWZ site, has also engaged security consultants to conduct a thorough review of the system.”

A police report has been lodged and PDPC has been informed, said SPH Magazines.

"SPH Magazines and HWZ sincerely apologise to HWZ users for this breach of security. We remain committed to protecting all personal data shared with us.” — TODAY