Hacked Security Firm DigiNotar Files for Bankruptcy

PC Mag, by Sara Yin, September 20, 2011

DigiNotar, a Dutch certificate authority that was hacked in July, has filed for bankruptcy.

"Although we are saddened by this action and the circumstances that necessitated it, we would like to remind our customers and investors that the incident at DigiNotar has no impact on VASCO's core authentication technology," said T. Kendall Hunt, chairman and CEO of VASCO, a U.S. security firm that acquired DigiNotar in January. "The technological infrastructures of VASCO and DigiNotar remain completely separated, meaning that there is no risk for infection of VASCO's strong authentication business."

Hunt added that VASCO was working with the Dutch government to investigate those responsible for the hack. VASCO is also planning to announce the financial damage done.

DigiNotar, established in 1997, was responsible for creating certificates that validate Web sites as legitimate. Although the breach traces back to July, DigiNotar reportedly took weeks to notice and revoked fake certificates without notifying anyone. A subsequent investigation revealed that DigiNotar certificates might have compromised the Google accounts of approximately 300,000 Iranians.

What this means is that when users in Iran and elsewhere navigated to certain Web sites, they might actually be visiting spoofed sites that stole personal information when users logged in. In the wake of the DigiNotar digital certificate hack, Microsoft revoked the trust of five DigiNotar root certificates, followed by Google, Mozilla, and Apple.

A hacker known as Comodo Hacker, who got his name thanks to a March hack of Comodo, has also taken credit for the DigiNotar job. He also claims to have accessed GlobalSign, prompting the company to temporarily stop issuing digital certificates.

Chloe Albanesius contributed to this report.

For more from Sara, follow her on Twitter @sarapyin.

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Dutch Government Struggles to Deal With DigiNotar Hack