The team behind the new social media app ‘Hive’ caused a sensation on Thursday with a drastic step: due to serious security problems, the servers will be completely shut down for a few days.
The announcement was made via Twitter – so via the online service that Hive wants to rip as many users as possible from.
German IT security researchers had previously warned:
According to their own statements, the members of the hacker collective Zerforschung had discovered a number of critical vulnerabilities in Hive Social and reported them to the responsible US company. Contrary to their expectations, however, not all weaknesses have been eliminated.
A data meltdown is imminent: access to all data of all users
The reported vulnerabilities would allow attackers to access “all data” of all users. This applies to private messages, private messages, shared photos and videos, and even posts and messages that have already been “deleted”. In addition, access is also possible to e-mail addresses, telephone numbers and dates of birth specified during registration.
In a video published on their website, the security researchers also show that attackers can also manipulate or modify third-party messages.
Not the first concern
In addition to the free Twitter alternative Mastodon, Hive Social has also benefited immensely from Elon Musk’s controversial management decisions in recent weeks. At the end of November, the start-up founded in 2019 by American student Raluca Pop reported one million users for the first time.
Shutting down the server is an unusual way to fix errors, to say the least, according to the well-known American tech blog Techcrunch. This move “raises questions about the development workflow in the company”.
These are not the first concerns raised in the weeks following the rapid growth. Hive Social was “not always completely transparent” “in terms of its inner workings, its corporate structure, its moderation skills or its funding sources”.
Sources
- zerforschung.org: ZER Product Alert – Hive Social
- techcrunch.com: Twitter alternative Hive is shutting down its app to fix critical security issues
- newsweek.com: Meet the student behind Hive, the Twitter alternative challenging Elon Musk
(dsc)
Source: Watson
I’m Ella Sammie, author specializing in the Technology sector. I have been writing for 24 Instatnt News since 2020, and am passionate about staying up to date with the latest developments in this ever-changing industry.
