For those still unfamiliar with the popular apps of today, there has been one particularly popular app that has been gaining a massive following despite being an iOS-only app. Clubhouse is an audio-only chat room and as of the moment, it still requires an invite for people to join. The iOS app is also reportedly working on an Android version in order to get more people to join. However, this could still be months away from release.
Do Not Download Clubhouse PC
Like every other popular app, cybercriminals are now targeting clubhouse for their elicit schemes aimed to trick people into giving them their private information. There are now fake ads online even on Facebook attempting to get poor victims to join the Clubhouse PC version which does not exist!
Signing up to this application would then download malware on the victim's unit through the ads that as of the moment have been discontinued. The latest issue regarding Clubhouse is that a major leak has exposed 1.3 million different scraped user records.
1.3 Million Users Exposed
The incident happened just a few days ago after over a billion records from both Facebook and LinkedIn were reportedly put up for sale online. The difference, however, is that the given Clubhouse records were leaked online for free on a very popular hacker site.
The data that was leaked online would include the subscriber's User ID, Photo URL, Name, Twitter handle, Username, Instagram handle, Number of people the user follows, Number of followers, and all of the Account creation data including the user profile name as well as where they got the invite from. In other words, the information includes everything that hackers would want and can use against the victims.
Clubhouse Security Measures
According to the story by PhoneArena, clubhouse has already responded to this incident saying the app has not experienced a data breach and that the information that was supposedly leaked online has actually been available for free through the company's API. That alone would bring up some other questions regarding user privacy policy that was put into place by Clubhouse.
The question was then asked as to why this information would be needed if other more critical information like credit card numbers were still not included? Cybernews now suggests that users should beware of responding to suspicious messages or "phishing" emails and texts and even connection requests.
Users are also advised to create strong passwords and even consider the use of a password manager as well as two-factor authorization or 2FA for all of the users' online accounts. Although this isn't a 100% guarantee, this would still allow users an extra layer of protection and increase the chances of safety for their accounts. The compromised information, although quite shocking, does not contain the financial information that hackers can use to steal actual money from their victims.
Related Article: Clubhouse Taps Medium Software Engineer Mopewa Ogundipe to Work on Android Version: Who is This Developer?
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Urian Buenconsejo
