(Ecns.cn)--The personal information of over 100 million web users, including their usernames and passwords, has been leaked to hackers, triggering concerns over Internet safety among the public, reported the First Financial Daily on Wednesday.
China Software Developer Network (CSDN)，the country's largest programmer website, reportedly leaked more than 6 million user accounts. Sina Weibo (the Chinese version of Twitter)， which has a database of 250 million registered users, also became the target of hackers.
Many Sina Weibo users found that their profile images and nicknames had been changed, and that spam tweets had been posted using their profiles.
Sina responded by saying that the company has improved its password protection system and would sound the alert if there was any abnormal account activity.
According to an insider at Sina, many internet users access several websites using the same account names and passwords, so if one website is hacked, personal information on other websites can easily be decrypted.
Computer experts have advised Internet users against panicking, saying that changing their passwords in a timely manner would prevent their privacy from being violated.
"Users should enhance the protection of their personal information by not providing too much real information in online registrations and setting difficult passwords that will be hard for hackers to crack," Zhou Yonglin, director of the Operating Department of the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China, told the Xinhua News Agency.
"Internet operators should strengthen their management, self-discipline, security guarantees and emergency response capabilities," he added. "The government should also attach great importance to new security issues arising from the application of various new technologies and intensify the crackdown on illegal industry chains."
