Internet Matters

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The news that began circulating at the weekend: "Delete the Houseparty app hacked my Spotify account!"

Like many rumors, the posts went viral over public networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, and closed forums on WhatsApp and Snapchat.

meanwhile, they are widely used so that Houseparty itself says it is a victim of a "paid commercial smear campaign".

The U.S. company is the owner of Epic Games is now offering $1m (£803,000) Bounty for information that a "malicious actor" behind the claims.

So, Houseparty hack people?

there is a consensus in The Information Security world, that it is highly unlikely that the app is active, break The People in the other accounts.

Although relatively unknown until the pandemic, Houseparty was in the last June of the established company behind The Hit Fortnite game.

"These posts seem to imply very clearly that Houseparty is a rogue app, the active intrusion in every part of your digital life, and plunder it in a determined outbreak of crime," says Paul Ducklin, a researcher of cyber-security company Sophos.

"But this is a mainstream app published by a well-known software companies like Apple and Google, the official online shop. "

This is not to be presumed that Houseparty is Too Big to be hacked. There are numerous examples of well-equipped companies, defective products, and many other examples of organizations that deny the inaccurate, they were hacked, either knowingly or not.

However, the nature of this incident is not In Line with the usual cyber-crime.

"Normally, if a cyber-crime-group violations of a company or downloads a user account database, the data will not be sold at a high price and used in a very targeted manner," explains Elliott Thompson, consultant at sure cloud.

"If there is a scam group acquired the data for $10,000, it would make no sense financially to burn the data, by trying to steal accounts for streaming services.

"even if the violation was widespread, it would appear in the rule, on public forums, and we have not seen such a thing. "

experts Say that the alleged injuries are likely associated with non-related hacks, and it is a coincidence that The People reporting to the victim, shortly after downloading the chat app.

"If people added the same passwords and E-Mail addresses for the many different services that a Hacker need only access one of this website's databases, and all of a sudden have access to all of your accounts," Mr Ducklin.

"With the Houseparty with the new app on so many people's phones, this could be why people are pointing the Finger in the direction of now. "

there is a coordinated effort to smear Houseparty?

Epic seems to suggest Games certainly, there is an organized campaign.

"Our investigation found that many of the original tweets, the dissemination of this statement were deleted, and we have noticed that the Twitter accounts suspended," it says.

But The Bbc spoke to Two People whose contributions have been distributed, and they don't seem to be in any way coordinated, or after the paid orders.

A woman said she posted A Warning and advice on How To delete the app just because you wanted to help Others .

The video chat app has The Most popular Android-and-iOS-download-in many countries of The World in the last days

Another tweeted 26-year-old woman from Scotland, you and your friend to Spotify, Amazon, PayPal, and online bank accounts had been hacked since the Download Houseparty.

in an interview with The Bbc by telephone, she admits she has no evidence to support the link Houseparty at risk to your Spotify account. She says she only has The Connection , after a screenshot of Someone Else with a similar claim.

"Me and My Friends Houseparty started used it almost every night since The Virus , and we enjoyed the game of The Games as a group, but then incredible things happened," she said.

"I have to Say an E-Mail from Spotify about suspicious activity, someone is trying to access my account to login, so I changed my password. This happens only downloaded since I have the app, and when I said To My group, chat about them, a few people also said weird stuff happened to them, so that we can have it deleted, and I warned the Others . "

The Woman recognizes that she uses the same password and E-mail across various online services, was already at relatively High Risk

the app Is safe?

Epic Games insists customer data is secure.

"the passwords are kept in a secure database salted and hashed, in accordance with the best practices of the industry," says a spokesman.

And security experts, to look at The Product in Detail - nothing to Say , obviously is.

"The permissions do not ring all the privacy Alarm Bells with me," says Luke Stefanko by Eset.

"The app offers video chats with Your Friends , so it is logical that it asks for access to the camera, the contacts, the location, the nature of the thing. I haven't found any shady misuse of data. "

Some of the apps on the functions have caused concern, although for a different Reason - the safety of the children.

"Although the app is relatively secure, since the users can create "rooms" and not select only certain names of people to talk to her, when a child lock to prevent your Chat Room and select "private settings, other pop-in video chat," warns The Charity Internet-Affairs.

"is it So important to show, and you sit down with your child to go to privacy-filters and other controls, if video Chats. This will keep the video-chat, private and secure. "

internet safety, video calling, apps

Source of news: bbc.com