{"id":90274,"date":"2018-07-10T09:41:47","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T16:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/securingtomorrow.mcafee.com\/?p=90274"},"modified":"2025-08-13T01:18:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T08:18:16","slug":"timehop-data-breach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/privacy-identity-protection\/timehop-data-breach\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular Social Media App Timehop Hit With Huge Data Breach"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fourth of July is characterized by barbeques, fireworks, and patriotism \u2013 and now cyberattacks! Just this past Independence Day, the popular social media app Timehop was hacked \u2013 as cybercriminals set their sights on the company\u2019s servers, rather than enjoying hot dogs and sparklers. The attack affects<\/a> a whopping 21 million Timehop users and has put their personal information at risk of being compromised<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The key ingredient for this attack: multi-factor authentication. Or, lack thereof. Hackers were able to access the company\u2019s cloud servers on July 4th<\/sup> because Timehop had not turned on multi-factor authentication. “The breach occurred because an access credential to our cloud computing environment was compromised,” the company said. Once they obtained the credential to access the servers, the crooks managed to remain inside the system for approximately two hours.<\/p>\n

In a company blog post,<\/a> Timehop stated that the security breach compromised the names and emails of these 21 million users, which is essentially its entire user base. And 4.7 million of those affected users had a phone number that was attached to their account breached in the attack as well. Fortunately, Timehop says that no financial data was compromised in the attack, and all access to social media platforms was deactivated immediately by Timehop, which actually logged all users out of their accounts.<\/p>\n

Tips to Protect Your Personal Information<\/h2>\n

This breach joins the Exactis<\/a> and Adidas breaches that have occurred in the past week, leaving millions of consumers out there concerned for their personal security. So, what next steps should Timehop users take to ensure they secure their personal information? Start by following these tips:<\/p>\n