TECH CRUNCH - The U.S. military placed ads on Tinder in Lebanon, warning people in Arabic not to attack the U.S. or its allies amid Middle Eastern tensions. The ads, linked to U.S. Central Command, targeted groups like Hezbollah and were part of a broader psychological operations strategy. Despite their intent, Tinder removed the ads for violating its policies on violence and safety. The U.S. Central Command declined to comment on the campaign's details.
10 posts categorized "Reporters - Zack Whittaker"
U.S. Military Runs PsyOps Ads on Tinder in Lebanon Amid Middle East Tensions
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POF Was Leaking Users' Hidden Names and Zip Codes
TECH CRUNCH - Dec 23 - The leaking data was not immediately visible to app users, and the data was scrambled to make it difficult to read. But using freely available tools designed to analyze network traffic, the security researcher found it was possible to reveal the information about users as their profiles appeared on his phone. POF has ~150M registered users.
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Facebook Users' Phone Numbers Found Online
TECH CRUNCH - Sep 5 - The exposed server contained ~419M records over several databases on users across geographies, including 133M records on U.S.-based Facebook users. The server wasn't protected with a password so anyone could find and access the database. Each record contained a user's Facebook ID and the phone number listed on the account. This is the latest security lapse involving Facebook data after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which saw ~80M profiles scraped to help identify swing voters in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Facebook spokesperson Jay Nancarrow said the data had been scraped before Facebook cut off access to user phone numbers.
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Group Dating App 3fun Exposed Sensitive Data on 1.5M Users
TECH CRUNCH - Aug 8 - The researchers from Pen Test Partners called the app a "privacy train wreck." ~1.5M users of the group dating app had their personal data exposed, including their real-time location, because of a vulnerability in the app. 3fun bills itself as a "private space" for kinky, open-minded people. Because the app wasn't properly secured, the researchers found they could plug in any coordinates they wanted to spoof their location, revealing sensitive information on anyone within any location of their choosing, including government buildings, military bases, and intelligence agencies. The researchers contacted 3fun on July 1 to report the bugs. Munro said the app maker took weeks to fix the issues.
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Tinder's New Security Feature Protects LGBTQ+ Users in Hostile Nations
TECH CRUNCH - July 24 - Users who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer on Tinder will no longer automatically appear on the app when they arrive in an oppressive state. This feature, called Traveler Alert, relies on users' phone network connection to determine its location. From there it will give users the choice to keep their location private. If users opt-in to make their profile public again, Tinder will hide their sexual orientation or gender identity from their profile to safeguard the information from law enforcement and others who may target them. There are 69 countries that consider same-sex acts illegal. Nine of the countries, including Iran, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia allow for prosecutors to pursue the death penalty against same-sex acts and relationships.
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Apple Reveals App Store Takedown Demands by Governments
TECH CRUNCH - July 4 - For the first time, Apple has published the number of requests it's received from governments to take down apps from its app store. In its latest transparency report, published Tuesday, Apple said it received 80 requests from 11 countries to remove 634 apps from its app stores during July 1 to December 31, 2018. Apple didn't list the apps that were removed, but noted in most cases why the apps were pulled. China made up the bulk of the requests, seeking to remove 517 apps claiming they violated its gambling and pornography laws. Vietnam and Austria also requested the removal of several apps that violated its gambling laws, while Kuwait asked Apple to pull some apps that fell afoul of its privacy laws. Apple said it received 29,183 demands from governments - down ~10% on the last reporting period - to access 213,737 devices in the second half of last year. Apple also received 4,875 requests for account data, such as information stored in iCloud - up by 16% on the previous reporting period - affecting 22,503 accounts.
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Jewish Dating App JCrush Exposed User Data and Private Messages
TECH CRUNCH - June 4 - A security lapse at JCrush left a database open without a password, exposing sensitive user records and private messages to anyone who knew where to look. None of the data was encrypted. The records contained the user's name, gender, email address, IP address and geolocation, as well as their city, state and country, date of birth, sexual preferences, religious denomination and photos they use on JCrush. The records also show the user's Facebook ID, which points directly to their Facebook profile. It also includes the access token, which can be used to take over a JCrush user's account without needing their password. JCrush's parent company, Northsight Capital, said it was "aware" of the situation and "secured the database immediately when the problem occurred."
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Rela, a Chinese Lesbian Dating App, Exposed 5M User Profiles
TECH CRUNCH - Rela, a popular dating app for gay and queer women, has exposed millions of user profiles and private data because a server wasn't protected with a password. Rela disappeared from app stores in May 2017 after it was reportedly shut down by Chinese regulators, though the government never confirmed it took action. But the app returned a year later, according to its app store listing, on a different cloud provider. Victor Gevers, a security researcher at the GDI Foundation, found the exposed database this week, containing ~5.3M app users. It's believed the database had been exposed since June 2018, a month after the app returned, Gevers said. Each record included their nicknames, dates of birth, height and weight, ethnicity and sexual preferences and interests. A company spokesperson confirmed the database had been secured.
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Users Complain of Account Hacks, but OkCupid Denies a Data Breach
TECH CRUNCH - Feb 11 - A reader contacted TechCrunch after his account was hacked. He said the hacker broke in and changed his password, locking him out of his account. They changed his email address on file, preventing him from resetting his password. There were several cases of people saying their OkCupid account had been hacked. "There has been no security breach at OkCupid," said Natalie Sawyer, a spokesperson for OkCupid. "All websites constantly experience account takeover attempts. There has been no increase in account takeovers on OkCupid." "If you use the same password on several different sites or services, then your accounts on all of them have the potential to be taken over if one site has a security breach," says OKCupid support page. That's called credential stuffing, a technique of running a vast lists of usernames and passwords against a website to see if a combination lets the hacker in. The easiest, most effective way against credential stuffing is for the user to use a unique password on each site. For companies like OkCupid, the other effective blocker is by allowing users to switch on two-factor authentication. OkCupid is just one of many major dating sites that doesn't use two-factor authentication at all.
by Zack Whittaker
See full article at Tech Crunch
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Donald Daters, A Dating App For Trump Supporters, Leaked Its Users' Data
TECH CRUNCH - Oct 16 - A new dating app for Trump supporters has leaked its entire database of users - on the day of its launch. The app, called "Donald Daters," is connecting Trump supporters. On its launch day alone, the app had 1,600 users. Elliot Alderson, a French security researcher, could download the entire user database which included user's names, profile pictures, device type, their private messages - and access tokens, which can be used to take over accounts. The data was accessible from a public and exposed Firebase data repository, which was hardcoded in the app.
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