A beforehand disclosed hack affecting Tea, a women-only relationship recommendation app, was extra intensive than beforehand thought, the corporate mentioned Monday. 

Tea’s investigation of the incident discovered that app customers’ direct messages had been breached, together with a few of their photographs. 

“Out of an abundance of warning, we’ve taken the affected system offline,” San Francisco-based Tea mentioned in an announcement to CBS MoneyWatch.

The app, which has change into one in all Apple’s most downloaded free apps, was compromised in a cyberattack that uncovered members’ private data, together with selfies, Tea mentioned Friday. The hackers accessed an information storage system containing data that members had uploaded previous to February 2024, the corporate mentioned. 

An extra 59,000 pictures and direct messages have been additionally accessed with out authorization, in response to Tea. 

Tea lets girls share details about their dates and run background checks on potential matches, amongst different issues. 

Ted Miracco, CEO at cell safety maker Approov, urged customers to exhibit warning in sharing private data on broadly downloaded apps.. 

“Lots of people presume that if an app is offered by Apple or Google, that it is protected. That is the primary mistake customers make,” he instructed CBS MoneyWatch. 

Miracco additionally mentioned Tea lacked enough safety protections.  

“That is fundamental cybersecurity and one thing the corporate ought to be held accountable for,” he mentioned. “They rushed to market and promised customers to create a protected website, and as a substitute they uncovered them.”