Over 8 million Gamigo user logins leaked months after breach

Millions of user logins swiped from a German gaming company earlier this year have appeared online this month. In February, hackers bypassed the security of free-to-play MMORPG outfit Gamigo, taking over 11 million email addresses and encrypted passwords (though only 8.24 million of the addresses were unique), making it the largest breach of its kind this year, topping June's leak of 6.46 million LinkedIn credentials.

After appearing online this month, security researchers have analyzed the dump, which reportedly includes 3 million US (.com) email addresses, 2.4 million German (.de) addresses, 1.3 million French (.fr) addresses, and 100,000 t-online.de addresses. Users affected by the breach don't really have to worry about their Gamigo account being compromised as the company quickly forced passwords to be reset back in March.

However, folks who used their Gamgio credentials across multiple sites remain at risk and should be extra vigilant about resetting the passwords to those accounts -- especially the email account used on Gamigo. The leak contains addresses for various services including Windows Live Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo, as well as accounts at companies such as Allianz, Deutsche Bank, ExxonMobil, IBM and Siemens.

ZDNet notes that over 5,000 email addresses were created specifically to register at Gamigo, suggesting those users should be safe, but that's only a tiny fraction of the accounts involved. It's also worth emphasizing that Gamigo protected user passwords with a one-way cryptographic hash algorithm, so complicated passwords may remain secure. PwnedList will tell you if your email address is involved.

MIT-developed algorithm can predict red light runners, alert nearby drivers

A new algorithm developed at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology can accurately predict how likely a person is to run a red light.

Traffic data from a busy intersection in Virginia showed that the system was accurate 85 percent of the time, roughly 15 to 20 percent more accurate than current methods. The algorithm takes into account a vehicle’s speed, deceleration and proximity to a stop light. The system is able to detect a potential light runner about two seconds in advance and could even send out a warning message to nearby vehicles about to enter the intersection.

The latter, of course, would depend on deployment of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) wireless communications technology that would allow automobiles to “talk” to each other. Ford, GM and BMW are all actively researching methods to integrate such technology into future cars and even makeaftermarket additions available for older cars. An aftermarket solution could also be used for cyclists and pedestrians.

As MIT processor Jonathan How suggests, the system as a whole would have to be reliable enough not to produce too many false positives; that is, alerting drivers when a threat isn’t present. Doing so too often would likely prompt motorists to dismiss the feature as annoying and ultimately disable it.

MIT is also looking into the possibility of bringing the technology to aviation where it could aid in collision detection or prioritizing runways.

A 2008 study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that 2.3 million automobile crashes occurred at intersections across the country, resulting in nearly 7,000 deaths. 700 of those were a result of someone running a red light.