Security researchers at Noam Rotem and Ran Locar have found 845 gigabytes of exposed data from dating apps online. The data is of users from a number of dating sites and contained particularly sensitive material including sexually explicit photos and audio recordings.
As organisations continue to struggle with large-scale data leaks and exfiltration of sensitive information from databases, it’s important that security teams assess their database security and look to follow best practice. This example is potentially very damaging for the companies involved, because the data that has been leaked is so sensitive. Our latest report shows that 29% of UK respondents lost data due to lack of cyber resilience preparedness. This sort of data can be used for nefarious purposes such as blackmail and emotional abuse. Customers that share data with organisations expect them to be responsible with it and are likely to stop doing business with any company that fails to do so. The importance of correctly securing data cannot be underestimated. You only have to look at other organisations that have suffered from large-scale breaches to see the reputational impact that it has suffered. All databases settings should be thoroughly to ensure the data is secure and not visible. There wasn\’t a specific trove of passwords in the exposed data, so changing your password likely won\’t do much. Any emotional abuse or blackmail should be reported to the police.