Crowdfunding Website Kickstarter Hacked

Kickstarter is one of dozens of crowdfunding websites that let people raise money from donors for projects. Kickstarter campaigns have included Zach Braff and Spike Lee movies, a local brewery, arts projects and business startups.

Kickstarter co-founder and chief executive Yancey Strickler said, Crowdfunding website was hacked earlier last week, but the breach has been repaired, the hackers got some passwords, phone numbers and email addresses, but "no credit card data of any kind was accessed.

Recent data breaches at Target Corp and Neiman Marcus have sparked concern from U.S. lawmakers and consumers over who should bear the cost of consumer losses and how to improve cybersecurity.

Mr Strickler wrote in a blogpost "We're incredibly sorry that this happened. We set a very high bar for how we serve our community, and this incident is frustrating and upsetting. We have since improved our security procedures and systems in numerous ways."

"As a precaution, we strongly recommend that you create a new password for your Kickstarter account, and other accounts where you use this password."

He added that the company is "working closely with law enforcement". 

Kickstarter launched in 2009 as a conduit for funding of projects ranging from films and stage shows to video games and restaurant launches. 

Contributors to a project's launch are often compensated with rewards, discounts, credits or other offers from the projects they help fund.

Since its launch more than 100,000 projects have been funded, with hundreds of millions of dollars pledged.

Author Venkatesh Yalagandula Follow us Google + and Facebook and Twitter