Have I Been S0ld? No, trusted security website HIBP off the table, will remain independent

The popular security website Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) will remain independent – despite owner Troy Hunt's decision last year to put the business up for sale. Hunt's site is a database of usernames or email addresses that have been exposed in data breaches. At the time of writing, it contains 9,543,096,417 records, which …

[Aladdin Sane]

Deserves several of these ----->

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually deserves a brewery.

Then he can enjoy those from time to time, and also afford to employ others from the beer profits to help out with HIBP.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd buy one for him

I don't use the service that often but I should and next time I'll donate something.

[This is not a drill]

Charity?

HIBP is a great service, which many in the security domain use. I sure most people would prefer that it remain independent. Perhaps it could be set up as a charity, so it could employ other researchers, I'd donate.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Charity?

Others may pay for it too, as a semi charity/commercial service as is. A bit like those price listing services for markets/government listings.

[The Rope]

Re: Charity?

Maybe a not for profit organisation would fit the bill.

[ThatOne]

Re: Charity?

> Maybe a not for profit organisation

So that in a couple years, a future predatory CEO can sell the company assets to some friendly, definitely-for-profit organization - Don't worry, all in the victims' best interests, of course. For instance, who wouldn't want to know about all those amazing new offers they otherwise might miss?

[Anonymous Coward]

A similar problem happened for PJ and Groklaw.

Shutting it down was the only outcome for her it seemed.

[Tim99]

It seems that it was probably forced disclosure/Patriot Act: groklaw.net.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, I know what was said at the time but there were plenty of ways to do secure email (PGP?). The information on Groklaw required some anonymity but it was hardly highly classified.

PJ had tried to step back from the all consuming beast of Groklaw and hand it over to Mark but that was quickly reverted when Mark realised the workload. So PJ took it over and I can't help but feel would've taken any reason to close it down.

Absolutely no criticism of the work she did on such an excellent site and it was/is sorely missed. I totally understand a hobby site that popular being a real burden especially as it had real world consequences with some companies with plenty of money, especially for someone who didn't want the limelight. But it would've been almost impossible to sell it on to another company and it was very difficult to monetise even if she'd wanted to for other means.

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

Simple enough . . .

If the workload has gotten too onerous, just offshore it! I hear labor in Nigeria is super cheap!

[Sitaram Chamarty]

no one is speculating on...

...what company it was that made the final cut, based on correlating with any other news stories.

I'm not into that sort of digging, but I was so sure someone would have gone into the likely names that had a recent "change in business model".