One of the popular third-party App store for Android users has been hacked, and data of over 20 million users have been leaked, according to a new report. Aptoide is seen as the ideal Google Play Store alternative and is estimated to have over 150 million users relying on its platform to download various Android apps.
As per the hacker, details of users who registered with the app store, as well as used apps from the platform between 21 July 2016 to 28 January 2018 has been published on one of the popular hacking forums.
In terms of the details that are available to the hacker, it includes user’s email address, hashed password, IP address, device data and date of birth among others. For users signing up with Aptoide, anyone getting access to these details can make them targets for cyber theft, or even phishing exercise, which can be used to steal money or even blackmail.
Overall, the hacker claims to have a record of up to 39 million, out of which they claim 19 million has been procured and ready to be published in the coming weeks. The other set of data includes details about users who’ve signed up on the app store from 2018 to the current year. And this information is likely to be sold off to the highest bidder on the dark web network.
Traditionally using third-party app store has been discouraged by Google as well as renowned security experts, but many people still feel the need to move away from Google’s control, forcing them to look at other app stores to download regular apps.