Social networking app Wishbone, which is used primarily by teenage girls to vote on various teenage type quizzes, like favorite entertainers or fashion, has been hacked.
The intruders have reportedly gained access to users’ (again, primarily female minors) names, unique email addresses and mobile telephone numbers. Not just a few, either. The data compromised included 2,326,452 full names, 2,247,314 unique email addresses, and 287,502 mobile telephone numbers. Some dates of birth and gender information was also compromised.
Email addresses are concerning as that is the method that hackers use for phishing emails to introduce malware and ransomware into users’ systems or attempt to engage the users in email conversation for nefarious purposes. Even more concerning is the fact that the hackers got ahold of hundreds of thousands of teenage girls’ cell phone numbers. As a parent, this should be very concerning.
If you have a teenager, and in particular, a teenage girl who uses Wishbone, they should be alerted to this compromise, and educated on the risks of phishing schemes, malware and ransomware, engaging in on-line conversations with people they don’t know, and engaging in telephone conversations with strangers. All of this online behavior is risky, but the fact that unique email addresses and cell phones numbers have been compromised puts these individuals at an even higher risk that they will be targeted.