It’s the season of love and connection! Students across campus and the world are using apps like Hinge, Tinder and OkCupid to start a connection with those in their area.
However, for some, a different match is being made: hackers and your personal data.
Match Group, owners of the aforementioned apps have had over 10 Million dating records across all of their platforms as well as internal company documents exposed by the infamous hacker group known as ShinyHunters.
The group claims they were able to acquire the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of some users as well as advertising tracking data.
A report from BleedingComputer shows they accomplished this by stealing data after compromising an Okta Single-Sign-On account, giving them access to the company’s marketing analytics, Google Drive and Dropbox cloud storage accounts.
The method they used was a combination of phishing and “vishing,” or voice phishing.
Phishing occurs when a target visits a supposedly legitimate website, such as matchinternal.com in the case of Match Group.
Alternatively, “vishing” happens over the phone, when “vishers” impersonate major organizations like Okta, Google, or Microsoft to access the personal information of those they’re calling.
A statement from Match Group to 404 Media said, “We are aware of claims being made online related to a recently identified security incident. Match Group takes the safety and security of our users seriously and acted quickly to terminate the unauthorized access.
“We continue to investigate with the assistance of external cybersecurity experts. There is no indication that user log-in credentials, financial information, or private communications were accessed. We believe the incident affects a limited amount of user data, and we are already in the process of notifying individuals, as appropriate,” Match Group said.
So, if you are a user of Tinder or Hinge, keep your eyes peeled on your email, as these apps may be reaching out for further information on how to secure your account. If you want to make adjustments now, security experts recommend changing your password as well as using two factor authentication or a passkey.
Also, if you receive a call regarding an account you have, it is more often than not a “vishing” attempt, and you should just hang up immediately.
Scams are getting more and more prevalent in the age of AI, and it is important to make sure you keep your data like you keep your relationships: secure.
