A new report claims that thousands of Spotify accounts have been hacked, with email addresses and passwords of users compromised and posted on the Internet. Spotify is denying the claim, stating that it has not been hacked and all user data are secure.
Are Spotify users really the latest victims of a hack? That depends on who you believe.
Spotify is denying a report from Newsweek claiming private user information has been released. The report states that over a thousand email addresses and passwords of Spotify subscribers were leaked last week.
Newsweek claims that it has verified the hacking with nine separate victims whose personal details were posted on Nov. 2. The victims claim they were not notified by Spotify and only heard from the company when they themselves realized they were victims.
One user says the stolen email address was traced to Russia, while another accuses Spotify of misleading them into believing that their issue was an individual case rather than one affecting multiple users.
Newsweek, however, claims there was no apparent reason for the hacking and that no one has claimed responsibility or given any explanation for why it was carried out.
Spotify has denied — without providing details — that the service was hacked and the leaked information emanated from another breach elsewhere.
"Spotify has not been hacked and our user records are secure," the company responded. "The compromised credentials come from a well-known past leak on another service."
Some subscribers, Spotify says, have made use of the same credentials on other services. The company, therefore, encourages people to update their passwords.
Spotify also makes sure to periodically check for leaks on other services, matching account names with those on Spotify, so subscribers can be advised to modify credentials that may have been compromised.
