A Russian hacker group infamous for attacking some of the world's biggest business and news websites claims to have breached the security of the popular tech website, CNET.

A person calling himself W0rm and who said he spoke for the attacking group contacted a CNET employee on Twitter and told him his group had stolen a database of encrypted passwords, emails, and usernames from servers belonging to CNET.

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If true, the attack would directly affect over a million registered CNET users. 

W0rm said his people were able to break into CNET's security wall through a hole in the company's implementation of the Symfony PHP framework. This framework is a popular programming tool used for providing a base on which the web developers can build a complex website.

A CBS Interactive news report said "a few servers were accessed" by the intruder.

"We identified the issue and resolved it a few days ago. We will continue to monitor" for potential impact, she said.

It was CNET's huge popularity that apparently attracted the hacker group.

W0rm told CNET that he wanted to make the Internet a better place rather than to protect copyright. He also said the people responsible for security on CNET are good at their jobs, but still left flaws in the system.

It is worth noting that CNET was the ninth-most visited website in the US in May. The website had 27.1 million unique visitors from the U.S. in June.

TagsCNET, Cyber Attack, Hacked