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Adidas Takes Websites Offline Following Security Breach

Hackers claim to have acquired and posted 500,000 email addresses and clear-text passwords

Nov 08, 2011 | 08:45 PM | 

By Tim Wilson
Dark Reading
Sporting goods giant Adidas late last week was forced to take some of its websites offline following a "sophisticated, criminal cyberattack."

According to news reports, Adidas discovered attacks on its websites on Nov. 3, but found no evidence that customer data had been stolen. Some of the company's websites -- including adidas.com, reebok.com, micoach.com, and adidas-group.com -- were taken down for a "thorough forensic review," the company said.

Since that statement, hackers claim to have stolen some 500,000 email addresses and clear-text passwords, some 700 of which were posted in Pastebin, according to a separate news report.

Adidas says it has put additional security measures in place and is bringing some of the sites back up. The company says its preliminary investigation did not find any evidence of a data breach.

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