Freenode IRC has had a few servers compromised, reset your nickserv passwords

[moepstar]

http://blog.freenode.net/2014/09/server-issues-2/

[xorcist]

Don't use nickserv passwords!

Freenode has support for SSL certificates instead. Basically you tell nickserv to trust your certificate instead of giving it your password. Then there are no passwords to steal.

Here's how to do it in irssi: https://freenode.net/certfp/certfp-irssi.shtml

[moepstar]

Currently a bit light on detail, at least it seems their services database is encrypted:

atheme 7.0.7. services. 1bc5b086ff841eb47e4f009c93c3e612005ad953 ceFjtR [ircd-seven] Build Date: Feb 11 2014

where c means "an encryption module is loaded" although only later versions of Atheme say which encryption module it is.