Frequent readers of this blog will know that I am a Starbucks addict. I need a venti sized drink to start the day or bad things will happen. But the news that Starbucks customers are having their accounts hacked and hackers are siphoning off money from their bank accounts, credit cards, and PayPal accounts are making me rethink using the app…. Again. More on the again part in a second. Let me start with linking to this story and showing you how this hack works:
Consumers in several areas of the U.S. have reported getting several emails from Starbucks in the space of five minutes that tell them their Starbucks gift card had been successfully loaded. It took only a short time for thieves to siphon hundreds of dollars from their accounts.
Although the repeated emails alerted consumers that something was wrong, they were unable to stop the transfers.
Now Starbucks in a statement did the “blame the user” thing by saying that it was weak passwords and the recycling of passwords that were the cause and the apps were fine. But while you should be using different passwords for all your accounts, I really don’t think that this is the root cause. The fact is that Starbucks apps have been found to be insecure before and after blowing that off, fixes appeared because of the bad press. Thus it’s not a stretch that someone could have found yet another hole in their software. Or they could be leveraging some sort of vulnerability in their point of sale system to get access to users information. Either is plausible. But the fact that Starbucks has decided to blame the user is disappointing.
My advice. Change your Starbucks password and use a complex one. Here’s an article on how to do that. It’s a prudent thing to do. Though I will admit that the source of this issue is not password related and at some point I will be proven right. When that happens, I’ll likely be be taking my coffee habit elsewhere.
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This entry was posted on May 14, 2015 at 6:47 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked, Starbucks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Starbucks App Vulnerable To Being Hacked?
Frequent readers of this blog will know that I am a Starbucks addict. I need a venti sized drink to start the day or bad things will happen. But the news that Starbucks customers are having their accounts hacked and hackers are siphoning off money from their bank accounts, credit cards, and PayPal accounts are making me rethink using the app…. Again. More on the again part in a second. Let me start with linking to this story and showing you how this hack works:
Consumers in several areas of the U.S. have reported getting several emails from Starbucks in the space of five minutes that tell them their Starbucks gift card had been successfully loaded. It took only a short time for thieves to siphon hundreds of dollars from their accounts.
Although the repeated emails alerted consumers that something was wrong, they were unable to stop the transfers.
Now Starbucks in a statement did the “blame the user” thing by saying that it was weak passwords and the recycling of passwords that were the cause and the apps were fine. But while you should be using different passwords for all your accounts, I really don’t think that this is the root cause. The fact is that Starbucks apps have been found to be insecure before and after blowing that off, fixes appeared because of the bad press. Thus it’s not a stretch that someone could have found yet another hole in their software. Or they could be leveraging some sort of vulnerability in their point of sale system to get access to users information. Either is plausible. But the fact that Starbucks has decided to blame the user is disappointing.
My advice. Change your Starbucks password and use a complex one. Here’s an article on how to do that. It’s a prudent thing to do. Though I will admit that the source of this issue is not password related and at some point I will be proven right. When that happens, I’ll likely be be taking my coffee habit elsewhere.
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This entry was posted on May 14, 2015 at 6:47 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked, Starbucks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.