Our phones are filled with apps through which we socialise with new people and widen our connections. However, amidst this process, our uploaded data being hacked and fetched have become a common problem as fraud techies continue finding new ways of peeking into your online life. Tinder, the famous dating app, had the same problem as users were witnessing their photos and left-right swiping actions being hacked and misused. Fortunately, the security risk has been taken care of now.
The issue of data being hacked was prominently addressed by Ron Wyden, the US Senator for Oregon, in a letter wherein he informed Match Group (Tinder's parent company) about the chaos. In the letter, he told that the images present on Tinder's servers weren't encrypted which allowed hackers operating from the same WiFi server as the users to peek into the photos of them. It also gives hackers access to all the swiping and match-making data exposing the personal preferences and other details of the users. The glitch was identified by security researchers.
Checkmarx, a security company, earlier dug deeper into the matter to find out how hackers execute the illegal act. They informed that the images which are transferred between Tinder's server and the phone app are encrypted by codes making them vulnerable. Also, the actions of swiping left or right action are encoded in binary forms but the pattern of codes was easy to crack.
After fixing the issue, Tinder wrote back to Ron Wyden thanking for bringing the issues into the light and informed that the glitches have been fixed now. By encrypting the photos and making the binary code sizes similar for all swiping actions, Tinder has now made using the app and fixing your date safer.
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