Everything You Need to Know About the MyFitnessPal Breach

June 14, 2022

Being a victim of a data breach could be extremely stressful and around 150 million MyFitnessPal accounts of Under Armour’s MyFitnessPal app experienced this misery in February 2018. Though the organization played down the data breach, there have been some undeniably large flaws in the storing of information that could have been avoided.

Several affected users tried to make a data breach compensation claim against the brand and because of this, it underwent investigation for breaching the Data Protection Act. So, what actually happened?

In this article, we’ll discover what went wrong, what it is best to do when you have been a victim of a data breach and how you can preserve your data secure in the future.

What Data Was Taken from the MyFitnessPal App?

The kind of information that fitness companies keep is usually quite private and detailed. Fitness apps usually ask for our email addresses, names, dates of birth, card details, and even your height and weight and social media accounts! The delicate nature of this information, and the fraudulent uses it divines, means it’s a preferred target for hackers.

When the MyFitnessPal data breach occurred, hackers stole and the affected information included usernames, passwords, and email addresses. Under Armour does not collect government identifiers or sensitive information, such as social security numbers and driver’s license numbers.

Under Armor rapidly reset all affected MyFitnessPal user accounts passwords, so the data couldn’t be used on the app, however, 12 months later, the old passwords have been on sale on the dark web for a price of around $20,000.

How Did Hackers Access MyFitnessPal?

Under Armour stated that almost all the hashed passwords on their systems have been protected with the hashing function called bcrypt making encrypted passwords extremely hard to crack.

However, the brand later admitted that a big proportion of the exposed hashed passwords have been only protected with a known weak hashing function known as SHA-1. There had been known flaws in this protection system for more than a decade, with several tech giants previously arguing that it shouldn’t have been used.

How Can I Find Out If My Personal Information Was Compromised?

In case you have been a user of MyFitnessPal in 2018, your data would have been accessed. You need to have received a notice from the app telling you to reset your password and so they answered a few of the common FAQs concerning the breach on their website.

As soon as passwords have been reset, the stolen data was useless to the hackers as they might no longer access private MyFitnessPal details. However, as with every data breach, it left users weak to other potential hacks on social media platforms that had identical login details.

What Did MyFitnessPal Do Following the Data Breach?

A spokesperson for MyFitnessPal stated users have been notified of the breach and informed to change their passwords immediately. They stated that they responded swiftly and stopped passwords that have been valid in 2018 from being able to access accounts.

The company additionally stated that they “continue to observe for suspicious activity and to coordinate with law enforcement authorities,” including that it was bolstering systems that detect and stop unauthorized access to user data.

What Should You Do if You Are Involved in a Data Breach?

In case you used the app in 2018, you’d have been notified that you need to reset your password. In case you used this same password on other websites, it’s a good suggestion to change these passwords too.

Frequently check your bank statements to make sure there isn’t any suspicious unauthorized party acquired data activity as well as run a full antivirus scan of your pc.

Is it Safe to Use MyFitnessPal App?

What’s the company doing to protect the MyFitnessPal account information? As soon as the company became aware, it rapidly took steps to find out the nature and scope of the problem. They’re working with leading data security companies to help in their investigation. They’ve additionally been notified and are coordinating with law enforcement authorities.

They’re taking steps to protect their community, including the next:

• Notifying MyFitnessPal users to provide info on how they’ll protect their data.
• Requiring MyFitnessPal users to change their passwords and urge users to take action immediately.
• Proceed to monitor for suspicious activity and to coordinate with law enforcement authorities.
• Proceed to make enhancements to their systems to detect and stop unauthorized access to user info.

How Should I Keep My Data Protected to Avoid a Data Breach in the Future?

With data breaches becoming more frequent, it’s important to keep your information protected. Be sure you are frequently reviewing communications you’re receiving to ensure they’re authentic and begin using completely different and secure passwords for different accounts.

Hackers are extremely smart, so any systems that aren’t up to date are vulnerable to being hacked. Due to this, you need to always update your devices and systems as and when they’re prompted. This could help to keep away from the chance of malware entering the pc.

More than ever before, we’ve relied on technology to keep us fit throughout the pandemic, however, this has left us exposed to numerous data breaches. Moving ahead, all users of fitness apps need to be particularly aware of the risks to avoid a data breach.

If you’re ready to learn more about how to protect your online privacy, contact EraseMugshots by dialing 866-601-6803 today.

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