It is possible that our dating apps may be breaking our hearts. A recent report from the US based tech giant, IBM, has revealed that a fair share of information shared via dating apps are susceptible to hacking.
IBM in the report released on Wednesday, says nearly 60% of the mobile dating apps on the android mobile platform are vulnerable to cyber-attacks that could put personal information and organizational data at risk.
Organizational Data? Well, yes.
According to IBM, 50 percent of organizations sampled for this research have at least one of these leaky popular dating apps installed on corporate-owned or personal mobile devices used for work. “The trouble with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is that, if not managed properly, the organizations might be leaking sensitive corporate data via employee-owned devices,” says the IBM report.
IBM sampled 41 dating apps from Google Play and identified 26 (60% of sampled apps) that had either medium or high severity vulnerabilities.
A lot of things could go wrong with a vulnerable app installed on your smartphone. Users’ billings details, for instance, could be snitched to make purchases on other apps and website, phones’ microphone could be remotely turned on to eavesdrop on a personal or corporate conversation, even more troubling, access to GPS data could lead to stalking.
IBM did not call out specific apps who have these vulnerabilities, but said they have forwarded their recommendations developers of erring apps. IBM Security VP, Caleb Barlow, recommends that users limit the personal information they divulge and keep track of each app’s permissions.
We recommend that you, at least, visit the local bar.
Image via: techweekeurope.co.uk
