TEA, a meeting for the safety of women who reached the top of the free IOS App Store ads, underwent a major security violation last week. The company confirmed on Friday that it “identified authorized access to one of our systems” which exhibited thousands of user images. And now we know that DMs have also been accessible during the breach.
The preliminary results of the TEA at the end of last week showed that the violation of data exposed approximately 72,000 images: 13,000 images of selfies and an identification of photos that people had submitted during account verification, and 59,000 images which were publicly visible in the application from publications, comments and direct messages.
These images had been stored in an “inherited data system” which contained information more than two years ago, the company said in a press release. “Currently, there is no evidence suggesting that current or additional user data have been affected.”
Earlier Friday, publications on Reddit and 404 Media reported that faces and identifiers for tea application users had been published on the Babilla of anonymous online 4chan message. Tea demands that users check their identities with selfies or identifiers, which is why driving licenses and photos of people’s faces are in disclosed data.
And on Monday, a tea spokesman confirmed to CNET that he “recently learned that certain direct messages (DMS) were accessible as part of the initial incident”. Tea has also taken this affected system offline. This confirmation followed a 404 media report on Monday according to which an independent security researcher discovered that it would have been possible for hackers to access the DMs between users of two, affecting the messages sent last week on the TEA application.
TEA said it launched a complete investigation to assess the scope and impact of the violation.
What is tea?
The premise of tea is to provide women with a space to point out the negative interactions they had during the meeting of men in the dating pool, with the intention of keeping other women safe.
The application is currently in place n ° 2 for free apps on the Apple American App Store, just after Chatgpt, attracting international attention and triggering a debate on the question of whether the application violates men’s privacy. Following the news of data violation, he also plays in the broader debate on the question of whether online identity and age verification represent a security risk inherent in Internet users.
In the confidentiality section of his website, tea declares: “Tea dating advice takes reasonable security measures to protect your personal information to avoid losses, abuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. Please know, however, that in spite of our efforts, no security measure is impenetrable.”
