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janrinok writes:

Hundreds of Netflix log-in credentials appear to have been leaked online Thursday [cnet.com] in a document posted by a hacker group known as Derp. Nevertheless, you might not have to change your password -this time. Netflix, which provides streaming video and DVD rentals to more than 48 million subscribers around the world, said that it's aware of the leak.

"We're looking at it," a Netflix spokesperson told CNET.

The more than 1,800 passwords and usernames posted to PasteBin appear to be identical so far to a similar leak of Netflix passwords in December. Of the dozen or so credentials that CNET tested at random, none worked, and of several emails sent to Netflix users on the list, one bounced. Tne person on the list confirmed that his listed password was an older one. "That was a password from about a year ago," said Travis Hammill, a 24-year-old REI employee in Alexandria, Va., who added that he's changed his Netflix password several times since then for security reasons.

The only question that remains now is — why release out-of-date passwords? Possible answers are to enable them to compare them against known lists and update them, or to enable someone to try them on websites other than Netflix to check if the owners changed all all the places that the password was in use. Any more suggestions?

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