In brief: Gawker.com says database hacked
NEW YORK – Gawker Media Inc. is urging subscribers to change their passwords because someone has managed to hack into the company’s user database.
The company, which runs a series of irreverent blogs on media, technology and other issues, said in a posting on its website Sunday that the commenting passwords used on the sites were encrypted, but simple ones could be vulnerable to attacks by hackers’ computers.
The company also said passwords on other sites should be changed if they were the same as the ones stored by Gawker Media.
“We’re deeply embarrassed by this breach,” the posting on gawker.com said.
The Gawker breach is the latest in a recent series of cyberspace attacks on websites. Last week, the Visa and MasterCard sites were inaccessible for a short time likely because of attacks by supporters of the WikiLeaks website. Supporters were angry that the credit card companies had stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks.
Both MasterCard and Visa said that cardholders’ accounts were not at risk and that people could continue using their credit cards.
NYC mayor nixes run for presidency
NEW YORK – Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Sunday revisited the subject of his possible aspirations for higher office, offering a definitive “no way, no how” when asked if he will run for president of the United States.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Bloomberg said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he would be sticking with the elected office he holds.
“I’m not looking at the possibility of running,” Bloomberg told host David Gregory. “I’ve got a great job, and I’m gonna stay with it.”
Grocer A&P files bankruptcy papers
MONTVALE, N.J. – The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., best known to grocery shoppers as A&P, says it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The company, founded in 1859, says it will have access to $800 million in debtor-in-possession financing and that all of its 395 stores, located in eight states in the Eastern U.S., are fully stocked and open for business.
A&P is one of the oldest supermarket operators in the country. Its first store was in New York City and sold tea, coffee and spices. It expanded across the nation and by the 1930s was the largest grocer in the country.
Woman found 200 miles away
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – Authorities say a North Carolina woman reported missing in September walked 200 miles before she turned up at a Virginia shelter.
The Fayetteville Observer reported that Wilma Edwards, of Fayetteville, turned up last week in Richmond, Va. Her information was found in a database of missing people, and she told authorities she had traveled to the shelter on foot.
Cumberland County sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Tanna said Edwards, 56, is known by many as “Miss Betty” and frequently takes long walks around Fayetteville with a white bucket that she sits on when she gets tired.
Edwards had last been seen Sept. 19.