Flipboard hit by user data breach

Hackers accessed the company’s internal systems for more than nine months

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News aggregator service and mobile news appFlipboardhas begun notifying users of a data breach in which hackers had access to its internal systems for over nine months.

The company informed users of the breach in a series of emails in which it explained that hackers had gained access to the databases it uses to store customer information.

According to Flipboard, these databases contained information such as usernames, hashed passwords and in some cases, emails or digital tokens that linked user’s profiles to third-party services.

Thankfully though, the vast majority of passwords were protected by a strong password-hashing algorithm calledbcryptwhich is known for being difficult to crack. However, if a user failed to change their password since 2012, then it is was hashed using the weaker SHA-1 algorithm.

Flipboard breach

While Flipboard did not disclose just how many of its user accounts hackers had access to, the company did say that not all accounts were affected by the breach.

As an extra measure of security, the company is now in the process of resetting all customer passwords even if they were not accessed by hackers. Flipboard has also already replaced the digital tokens used by customers to connect its service to other third-party services such asGoogle, Twitter, Facebook andSamsung.

Overall though, the breach appears to be quite extensive and according to the company, hackers had access to its internal systems for almost nine months. They first gained access from June 2, 2018 until March 23, 2019 and  then once again infiltrated the company’s systems again between April 21 and April 22, 2019.

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It was during the second time that hackers gained access that Flipboard detected the breach while investigating suspicious activity on its database network.

It is recommended that all Flipboard users change their passwords now and the company has notified law enforcement regarding the breach.

ViaZDNet

After working with the TechRadar Pro team for the last several years, Anthony is now the security and networking editor at Tom’s Guide where he covers everything from data breaches and ransomware gangs to the best way to cover your whole home or business with Wi-Fi. When not writing, you can find him tinkering with PCs and game consoles, managing cables and upgrading his smart home.

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