Introduction
Over 1.2 GB of data from users of MeetMindful, a well-versed dating site, was stolen and posted on a hacker forum on 20th January 2021. MeetMindful failed miserably in keeping the users safe from hackers, who in their case are said to be ShinyHunters, and on a hacking forum, were found details of users like location and marital status. The 1.2 GB consisted of data from 2.28 million users and associated risks are their sensitive info like real identity, email, address, and social media accounts. All of these have been made available for public download on the hacker’s forum.
About MeetMindful
Founded in 2014, MeetMindful is an exclusive dating platform built differently from any typical dating website. There are options like Like, Pass and ignore for its users. The profiles you just passed, will not come by your profile any further while like ones will be available to chat in case they liked you back. Information such as name, address, photos, mobile number, etc is necessary to open an account at MeetMindful.
Impacts of Dating site MeetMindful getting hacked
The stolen 1.2 GB file that brings in cyber threats, is downloadable to anyone, meaning this file consisting of sensitive information is entirely public. The details that are out now, thanks to the hacker, were asked during the registration process and are vital to open an account on MeetMindful. Not just regular info like name and Mobile number, but specialties such as body measurements, dating preferences, marital status, an account password, and IP addresses have been out.
Such a thing isn’t good news for a bit as the leaked data can be a path for tracking down profiles and setting up stalking routes, which can be risky. As said earlier, the file was made available on a public file-hosting website, making anyone eligible to download it. So any criminals and scammers had a way to extract the file and find relevant info to further blackmail the users in exchange for a fortune.
What happened to the data leaked by ShinyHunters?
The data was found uploaded on a public domain that consisted of several other hacked databases, downloadable by anyone at any instant. Around 2.28M users’ became a victim of ShinyHunters as their sensitive info made up to 1.2 GB files having their real names, email addresses, cities, states, ZIP details, body details, dating preferences, marital status, birth dates, latitude, and longitude, IP addresses, bcrypt-hashed account passwords, Facebook user IDs and Facebook authentication tokens. Although dangerous, a sigh of relief for a lot of users was when it was stated that messages exchanged were not leaked. Nevertheless, it was still problematic.
With an unknown number of downloads, the scariest aspect was that anyone who had this file can now track profiles down to their address. Meanwhile, the forum where the file was leaked received a visit from over 1500+ people and it is speculated that most of them have downloaded it for their use.
ShinyHunters and its nuisance
As for ShinyHunters, they refuse to comment on anything at the moment.
However, MeetMindful is not the first target of ShinyHunters. Just a week before their latest incident with MeetMindful, they leaked user data of Teespring in the same manner. Other than that, ShinyHunters has been involved in numerous other data breaches.
One of the most notorious data leaks of BuyUCoin’s 3.25 lakh users was posted on the dark web. BuyUCoin is a global cryptocurrency exchange and wallet based in India’s Delhi NCR region.
Apart from India’s BuyUCoin, the hacker had also hacked into ClickIndia, WedMeGood, BigBasket, and JusPay to leak data like it does every time. Another big trade of ShinyHunters was from the Pixlr application, from where they had stolen records from over 19 lakh users.
Summary
MeetMindful and the majority of online service providers are at the mercy of hackers as data breaches have become more and more common nowadays. Due to such online threats, securing accounts has become an essential combat. For example, two-factor authentication is a nice way of self-securing, whereby a password and a unique verification code are required to bypass the login page successfully. As of now, the 2FA works fine, and there aren’t any better alternatives to it.
FAQs
MeetMindful is a legit dating site, with well-functioning features. It also does the work of match-making perfectly with men finding their dream women and women finding their love partners that were long awaited.
No, MeetMindful is not a scam and rather, a dedicated dating site having a workforce that ensures integrity at all times. Moreover, new users are verified thoroughly to eradicate fake users.
MeetMindful is not a new dating website as it has been running pretty well since 2014. It was founded by Amy Baglan, the current CEO of MeetMindful.
Meetmindful is a dating website for singles who want to get a partner. Unlike other popular alternatives like Tinder and bumble, meet mindful is a focus-driven site for people who are seeking serious relationships. People in MeetMindful only come to the date and carry out the relationship with future plans, and it is solely not for fun. So being at MeetMindful, you are sure to match with your beloved very soon.
MeetMindful is available for both free aka the basic account or the upgraded version. In its basic account, there are limits to most of Meetmindful’s features. For instance, you will only be able to give 10 fits in a day and only 3 likes in the basic version.
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