Myfitnesspal users alerted to e-mail security breach
More than 150 million people accounts with diet and fitness app
More than 150 million user accounts of popular diet and fitness application Myfitnesspal have been hacked, it emerged yesterday.
UK users received official notification of the security breach via an urgent warning. The application is run by American sports and fitness apparel manufacturer Under Armour and shares in the company plunged 3.8 per cent on the back of the announcement.
The investigation indicates affected information may include usernames, email addresses and passwords.
Paymentinformation,which Under Armour collects and processes separately, has not been affected by the breach.
Under Armour does not collect government identifiers like driver’s licence numbers. The company first became aware of a potential breach on 25 March when they discovered an unauthorised party had accessed Myfitnesspal user data in February.
Under Armour said it had taken steps to notify affected users and was now working with data security firms and law enforcement to assist in its investigation.
Scottish tennis champion Andy Murray counts Under Armour as his major sponsor, having signed a four-year kit deal with the Us-based sportswear company worth about £15 million in 2014.
Paul Fipps – the chief digital officer for the Myfitnesspal app – said in a statement: “We understand that you value your privacy and we take the protection of your information seriously.
“On 25 March, we became aware that during February of this year an unauthorised party acquired data associated with Myfitnesspal user accounts.
“The affected information included usernames, email addresses and hashed passwords – the majority with the hashingfunctioncalledbcrypt used to secure passwords. We are working with leading data security firms to assist in our investigation. We have also notified and are coordinating with law enforcement authorities.”
Mr Fipps added: “We are taking steps to protect our community, including the following: We are notifying Myfitnesspal users to provide information on how they can protect their data; we will be requiring Myfitnesspal users to change their passwords.”
dale.miller@scotsman.com