A popular gay dating app was hacked earlier this year, according to a notice filed with the Washington attorney general’s office.
On April 1, a representative for Manhunt wrote to Attorney General Bob Ferguson to inform his office of a hacking incident that affected approximately 7,700 Washington residents.
“On March 2, 2021, Manhunt discovered that an attacker had gained access to a database that stored account credentials for Manhunt users,” Stacey Brandenburg, an attorney who advises clients on privacy, data security and data-related issues, wrote on behalf of the company.
The information affected in the breach — usernames, email addresses and passwords — was downloaded by the attacker in early February 2021, according to the note.
The geosocial networking site said that it “immediately took steps to remediate the threat and secure its systems.”
That included force-resetting passwords for hacked accounts, and notifying users, as required by state law.
Manhunt began sending notices to users on March 16, informing them that there’s no evidence that pictures or messages were acquired by the attackers.
No credit card information was exposed as a result of the incident, the company added.
The breach was first reported by TechCrunch.
The online outlet, which focuses on high tech and startup companies, noted that it’s unclear how the passwords were scrambled to prevent hackers from reading them.
Passwords that are scrambled using weak algorithms could potentially be “decoded into plain text, allowing malicious hackers to break into their accounts.”
