How does the Gawker password compromise affect travelers?

At first glance, this topic seems a bit of a stretch for a travel technology blog, but I've decided I can live with that. You see, the popular Gawker web site network, which actually includes not just Gawker, but also Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Kotaku, Lifehacker, Deadspin, io9, and Fleshbot, has had its user account database hacked. That means the usernames and passwords of countless web site visitors are in the hands of miscreants.

I wouldn't consider this a huge problem, except that a huge number of folks use the same password for more than one web site. That's long been true for me, though I have several passwords for different categories of sites. Some users today are discovering their Twitter account has been used to send out bogus tweets, or their Facebook account compromised, and the list goes on and on.

How does this connect to travel? Well, my Gawker password (which I've since changed) was also, until a few minutes ago, my password on some hotel web sites. Someone armed with your password to a travel industry web site could easily book themselves a room, purchase a plane ticket, rent a car, or do any number of other things -- potentially with your stored credit card information. Depending on where you reuse the same password on multiple sites, they might also get into your e-mail and change that password -- preventing you from getting the e-mail confirmations that would warn you of their shenanigans. 

I admit I wasn't sure I even had a Gawker account; I hadn't used it to comment on one of their sites since 2007. But, sure enough, even a three-year-old username and password can be hacked, and if you used the same password on other sites, they're not safe, either.

There's lots more info about the Gawker situation at lifehacker.com, but my suggestion is to take a quick trip to this Slate page, which will check for you whether your password, specifically, was compromised.