OkCupid and Other Dating Apps at Risk Due to Security Flaws

Dating apps are particularly vulnerable to hackers because of both security flaws and the valuable personal information they store. OkCupid recently confirmed that it had been notified of the potential security risks of its platform and has worked to address the issue.

Luckily, the popular dating app was able to fix the security flaw in about 48 hours, and no user data was compromised. But the nature of the problem was not unique to OkCupid and could potentially put other dating apps at risk too.

According to Engadget, security research firm Checkpoint Research, announced that it had discovered several vulnerabilities in OkCupid’s mobile app and website. The company said that these flaws could have allowed hackers access to private messages and personal addresses in addition to full profile details. In fact, hackers could even send messages from those compromised users’ accounts.

Checkpoint found that hackers were able to pose as users and send malicious links to other users via private message as well as over public forums. If a user clicked on the link, the hacker had access to their account. 

“Not a single user was impacted by the potential vulnerability on OkCupid, and we were able to fix it within 48 hours,” OkCupid said in a statement. “We're grateful to partners like Check Point who with OkCupid, put the safety and privacy of our users first.” 

Checkpoint notes that dating apps are particularly at risk because people share more personal information on them than they do on other social apps. 

“Our research into OKCupid, which is one of the longest-standing and most popular applications in their sector, has led us to raise some serious questions over the security of dating apps,” CheckPoint said in a statement. 

Collecting valuable data is the primary goal of hackers, and there is a wealth of information on dating apps – including where you live, your sexual identity and preferences, photos, and private messages. The personal nature of the data is a big security concern for companies like OkCupid. Another is privacy. Most users are open about their preferences and identity on dating apps, but if a user is trying to hide something such as sexual preference on a dating app, it can be used as leverage by the hacker, putting users even more at risk.

Check Point’s Oded Vananu told Forbes: “Every maker and user should pause to reflect on what more can be done around security...We wanted to understand how easy it would be for hackers to target this infrastructure to hijack accounts. It was very easy.”