A group of hackers attacked and defaced the  Canonical-backed Ubuntu Forums website yesterday. The hackers used an exploit to gain unauthorized access to the forum database and made off with data from approximately 1.82 million users. To make matters worse, the attackers then defaced the forum site itself by placing a landing page poking fun at the site administrators and boastfully including two twitter handles: @Sputn1k_ and a mention of @rootinabox.

Canonical has not released details on how the attackers accomplished the data breach, but stated that its security team is working to get the site back up and looking into what exactly happened.

From what has been discovered thus far, the hackers have reportedly made off with the passwords, usernames, and email addresses of all its users.

The company recommends that users change passwords on any other services immediately if they used their Ubuntu Forums password for log-ins on other websites or online services.

ZDNet managed to snag a screenshot of the defaced web page.

Fortunately, all of the passwords in the database were salted and hashed, and not stored in plain text. The exact hashing method was not detailed, however. Also, other Ubuntu services were not affected and user data in services such as Ubuntu One (Canonical’s cloud storage offering) is still safe.

If you had an account on the Ubuntu Forums and used the same password, you should change your passwords now just to be on the safe side. Users of the forum should keep an eye on this announcement page for more details on the hack and updates on the forum restoration process as it progresses.