News app Flipboard leaks millions of user’s details after being hacked

Do you have Flipboard on your phone? (Photo: Shutterstock)Do you have Flipboard on your phone? (Photo: Shutterstock)
Do you have Flipboard on your phone? (Photo: Shutterstock)

Flipboard, a news aggregator app, has confirmed that hackers gained access to their systems multiple times over a nine month period.

The app, which comes pre-installed in Samsung phones, and has about 150 million monthly users, was forced to reset millions of users passwords.

What happened?

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In a notice issued by Flipboard, the company states that a “security incident” had been identified following an investigation.

Regarding the outcome of the investigation, Flipboard said, “Findings from the investigation indicate an unauthorised person accessed and potentially obtained copies of certain databases containing Flipboard user information between 2 June 2018 and 23 March 2019 and between 21-22 April 2019.”

What information was gathered?

The databases involved in the hack may have “contained your name, Flipboard username, password and email address” according to the notice.

Additionally, if your Flipboard account was connected to a third party platform, such as a social media account, then the compromised databases could have contained digital tokens.

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Flipboard says it has not found any evidence that the hacker has accessed the social media accounts connected to Flipboard, but as a precaution, they have replaced and deleted all the digital tokens.

“Importantly, we do not collect from users, and this incident did not involve Social Security numbers or other government-issued IDs, bank account, credit card, or other financial information,” said Flipboard.

How will Flipboard make sure this won’t happen again?

As a precautionary step, Flipboard has reset all user passwords but did state that “the passwords were cryptographically protected and not all users’ account information was involved.”

Users will be prompted to create a new password next time they log into the app.

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The digital tokens used to connect Flipboard to third party platforms have been disconnected, and where applicable they have been deleted or replaced.

Looking to the future, Flipboard has also implemented tighter security measures and “continue to look for additional ways to strengthen the security of our systems”, according to their statement.

Flipboard advises that if you use the same username or password for another site as Flipboard, you should change it.

Flipboard isn’t the only platform to be targeted by hackers, with social media sites like Instagram also suffering from millions of user details being leaked.

This article originally appeared on our sister site Edinburgh Evening News