‘Have I Been Pwned’ Boss Looking for a Buyer to Help the Platform Grow
Published on June 11, 2019
- 'Have I Been Pwned' has grown way too big to handle by one person, and stay free.
- Troy Hunt is looking for a company to buy the platform and help him extend it.
- 'Have I Been Pwned' will hopefully have a bright future ahead, as the vision and planning are both there already.
Troy Hunt, the creator of Have I Been Pwned has posted a blog on his website, announcing that he is looking to take the next step with his platform. As he reveals, the popular breach notification and lookup service that he created five years ago can no longer be maintained by a single person, staying free of charge, and continue to serve its purpose without significant discounts. Mr. Hunt explained that the more massive the data breaches that were uploaded to the website, the greater the traffic became, and with the latest trend of the humongous data dumps that got published in the past couple of months, the feat of maintaining and keeping Have I Been Pwned up and running has become infeasible.
It's time for @haveibeenpwned to grow up and go beyond what I can do as one person. This has taken a lot of thought over the course of this year; here's the factors driving it, the path forward and what it means for the future. Here's Project Svalbard: https://t.co/ZeRtzfCTA2
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) June 11, 2019
Back in September 2018, when we interviewed Troy Hunt, he expressed his concerns about the project growing unbearably large, although, in the beginning, he was worried that the service wouldn’t even be viable. In fact, he admitted that he hadn’t foreseen a lot of what happened, and so here we are today, having a platform that can’t stay free or supported by a single person as if it’s a hobbyist project. It’s not anymore, and that has become clear within the past couple of months.
With all that said, Troy is making the following seven promises to the fans of the Have I Been Pwned service:
- The service will remain freely available for everyone who wants to search if his/her account has been breached. No payments, no charges, no hidden costs.
- Troy will remain part of the project, and he will try to infuse his mentality to the rest of the board.
- The service will be promoted to everyone in the world, while right now, only the tech-savvy know about it.
- The service will be extended with a lot more capabilities that can’t be added right now due to a lack of resources.
- The service will expand its scope to being a consulting and advisory platform.
- Special organization-focused features will empower corporations to help their clients stay secure.
- More data and more disclosures will be added to the platform, as this has become impossible right now.
No more details about who could be the buyer of Have I Been Pwned were given at this point, but the takeaway is that the future of the service will definitely be a bright one, to the benefit of us all. If for any reason you’re looking for a good alternative to Troy’s service, check out the Hasso Plattner Institute’s Identity Leak Checker.
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