Korean Dating App Leaks Private Images and Information of 1 Million Users
Korea is a country where incidents of data breach have significantly risen in number, becoming the new normal. Due to this, Data Protection has become a subject of concern in Korea. Massive-scale data leakage incidents have caused the residents great trouble as their resident registration numbers are easily accessible on the internet. For instance, while using various online platforms for shopping a person provides the required information that is not regarded safe as small business owners pay little attention to the protection of the database while on the other hand big business owners at times lack efficient data control system.
This data breach mostly leaks the private information of the users such as explicit content or certain images that should not be out in the public domain. The data that gets easily accessed due to the misconfigured and unsecure services, includes user information such as personally identifiable information and other sensitive data like private messages or images.
Lately, one such incident took place in Korea again where a dating app has leaked highly sensitive NSFW picture and information of the app users that are nearly 1 million in the count. This one was free of cost dating app that goes by the name “ Sweet Chat” belonging to Sweet Talk.
The aforementioned incident is a bit of a déjà vu, as the nearly same incident was reported in November last year. Though that incident had images, videos, and audios that were extremely explicit and private for the user and that particular database contained 130,000 files in total. Articulating about the incident that transpired this year the database only had NSFW images and only half of the total images were explicit. The count of the images and messages leaked this time was 1 million.
The era of technology accords with a wide range of approaches that can harm a user caught in such cases. The user ID’s are easily connected to the leaked images by a Reverse Image search process, which is very handy for cybercriminals who later on blackmail the users. Wrongdoers even get imprisonment for up to 40 years for such blackmailing cases in Korea.
These cases are very sensitive, as they breach the wall of privacy for the user. It’s the responsibility of the owners and the app developers to make sure that all such private information and the confidential database remains safe and private. The consequences of such cases are highly amplified for the victims as now anybody could access their personal information.
The users need to use these dating apps with proper care and change their passwords every now and then. Users are also advised to keep an eye on the personal information stored in the app. One must always be cautious about permissions that the apps ask for its proper working on the device. And cases carrying such sensitivity must be reported to the concerned authorities as soon as possible.
