NEW DELHI:

, allegedly belonging to a Chinese group called

, struck at www.microsoftstore.co.in on Sunday night, stealing login ids and passwords of people who had used the website for shopping

products.

While it is troublesome that hackers were able to breach security at a website owned by one of the biggest IT companies in the world, it is more alarming that user details — login ids and passwords — were reportedly stored in plain text file, without any encryption.

Following the hack, the members of Evil Shadow Team, posted a message on the Microsoft website saying “unsafe system will be baptized”. The story was first reported by www.wpsauce.com.

Later, the website seemed to have been taken offline by Microsoft. We advise the users at Microsoft India Store to change the password as soon the website comes online. Also, if they have used the same password or login id on any other web service, they should change it immediately.

Last year, hacker groups like

had carried out several-profile high profile break-ins, putting focus on the security measures companies put in place. Sony allegedly suffered several security breaches and hackers stole user ids and passwords of customers from its network.

In a message posted on a website called Pastebin, Lulzsec claimed the group was bringing attention to the web security. “Do you think every hacker announces everything they've hacked? We certainly haven't, and we're damn sure others are playing the silent game. Do you feel safe with your Facebook accounts, your Google Mail accounts, your

accounts? What makes you think a hacker isn't silently sitting inside all of these right now,” the group wrote.

But the incident at Microsoft Store on Sunday hints that lessons have not been learnt. Just like Sony, which later revealed that user ids and passwords were not encrypted at the time of security breach, Microsoft too seemed to have been casual about handling the user details by storing them in a plain text file.

Commenting on the security breach, a Microsoft spokesperson said, "Microsoft is investigating a limited compromise of the company's online store in India. The store customers have already been sent guidance on the issue and suggested immediate actions. We are diligently working to remedy the issue and keep our customers protected."