Security Breach Exposed Basically the Entire Timehop Database
Timehop, an application that is tied to a users’ social media account(s) for the purpose of resurfacing posts and photos users may have forgotten about, was recently a victim of a serious data breach. To be fair, the app is pretty neat. It will show you things you posted on this day years ago. Sometimes, we don’t want to be reminded, but other times, it’s pretty neat. Although, the use of the app seemed to decline since Facebook created their own “memories” feature which does the same thing.
So before I go on, do not get Facebook Memories confused with Timehop. Timehop is a third-party app — which users would have had to download. If you didn’t download it, you’re not impacted by this breach. But, if you did — you likely were. The data breach found on July 4, 2018, exposed 21 million Timehop user names and email addresses. Of those 21 million, 4.7 million also had phone number breached. According to Tech Crunch, this is basically the entire Timehop database. Therefore, if you had the app downloaded, you’ll want to do the following:
- Timehop allowed you to log in using your social media platform credentials. It would be best practice to change the passwords to these social media accounts.
- Be on the lookout for sketchy emails.
- If you’re a user who had their phone number breached, you will likely see an uptake in scam calls as well.
Moving forward, users should always be cautious of third-party apps that allow for social media sign ons. According to Information Security Buzz, these third-party apps are not able to change your password, instead, they just associate it with a token system which has been proven to be less than secure.
