Foodie app Zomato hacked, data from 17 million users stolen
Seventeen million users of the Zomato restaurant app may have their data stolen by hackers, which were able to breach the security late this week.
The number was revealed on the Zomato blog itself, which states that the hackers were able to get the e-mail addresses and passwords of these users. The post, however, assures users that no payment information, including credit card data, was stolen by the hackers.
Only those whose accounts on Zomato made outside of third-party services, such as Google and Facebook, are affected by the security breach. While the statement says that the website and the app use hash passwords, which cannot be easily converted to plain text, Zomato advises its users to change their passwords on other websites and apps where they are using the same passwords for safety reasons. The Zomato team has already reset the passwords of the accounts affected by the security breach, and have temporarily logged them out from both the app and the website. According to the blog, Zomato is searching for any possible security vulnerabilities.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
In a recent update, Zomato has said that the hacker is cooperating with them to address this issue. The blog post explains that, according to the hacker, the security was breached to make the company acknowledge its system vulnerabilities and address these accordingly. The hacker has also since taken down the listing it posted online, where he/she said he/she was willing to sell the data. He/she also gave the details on how he/she was able to breach the security system of the website and the app.
The Zomato blog indicates that a bug bounty program on Hackerone will soon be introduced to secure the site more. The company has committed to boost its security measures to prevent a similar incident happening in the future.
Zomato, which originated in India, has over 120 million visitors every month.
