Researchers have discovered that the private data of six million users of the popular astrology and moon tracking app Moonly has been leaked online.
The exposed data includes birth dates, exact GPS locations and email addresses of users, as well as IP addresses and login credentials of employees, by experts from Cyber news.
The GPS locations of where users created their accounts were part of the breach, meaning that many users’ home or work addresses were exposed, as well as over 90,000 customer email addresses. As is always the concern with sensitive information leaks, this leaves users vulnerable to threat actors who abuse the data, leading to a risk of reputational damage, identity theftor financial loss.
Russian ties
Cosmic Vibrations, the company behind Moonly, is headquartered in San Francisco, US, but researchers have discovered reasons to believe this may not be entirely true.
The leaked employee data showed that employees accessed their systems primarily from the Russian Federation, Belarus, and Indonesia, with mostly Russian surnames in the database.
The social media accounts of Moonly’s founders and staff appear to confirm Most were trained in Russia, with a handful still living there. The app’s Google Play store sends anyone who clicks through to the developer’s site to a Russian landing page. Despite this, the Delaware-registered organization insists it is based in the U.S. and “operates globally with a diverse team of employees spread across the globe.”
It is unclear whether this leak was the result of incompetence or malicious intent, but Cosmic Vibrations says it has taken action, stating: “The issue was quickly resolved to avoid further complications and protect our users’ data.”
The latest in what seems to be an endless stream of data leaksthe breach could have serious consequences for users. If you are concerned about this or any other data breach, it might be worth taking a look at the best identity theft protection for familiesor if you’re looking for a different kind of online protection, why not check out our guide to the best internet security suites.