Comment: Conversation probably went like this (Score 1) 123
If I had to guess, the conversation at Dreamhost probably went something along the lines of:
"The passwords are hashed though, right?"
"Yes."
"So they can't reverse the passwords out of it?"
"Virutally impossible."
"Is there any advantage they gain from having the hashed passwords?"
"Well, it would allow them to brute force their guesses against it without fear of being slowed down or blocked."
"But wouldn't they need to know our salting algorithm for that to be useful?"
"Um..."
"Let's go ahead and change the passwords."
"The passwords are hashed though, right?"
"Yes."
"So they can't reverse the passwords out of it?"
"Virutally impossible."
"Is there any advantage they gain from having the hashed passwords?"
"Well, it would allow them to brute force their guesses against it without fear of being slowed down or blocked."
"But wouldn't they need to know our salting algorithm for that to be useful?"
"Um..."
"Let's go ahead and change the passwords."