Hackers circulate thousands of FTP credentials, New York Times among those hit

Hackers are circulating credentials for thousands of FTP sites and appear to have compromised file transfer servers at The New York Times and other organizations, according to a security expert.

The hackers obtained credentials for more than 7,000 FTP sites and have been circulating the list in underground forums, said Alex Holden, chief information security officer for Hold Security, a Wisconsin-based company that monitors cyberattacks.

In some cases, hackers used the credentials to access FTP servers and upload malicious files, including scripts in the PHP programming language. In other instances, they placed files on FTP servers that incorporate malicious links directing people to websites advertising work-at-home schemes and other scams. An FTP server run by The New York Times was among those affected, and hackers uploaded several files to the server, Holden said.