The hacking community has certainly been on its game of late, and following on from the news that eBay had been hit by a breach that prompted users of the auction site to change their passwords en masse, it now appears that music streaming service Spotify has also been hit. Unlike the eBay fiasco, it would seem that the Spotify incident is small-scale and only affects those on Android, but nonetheless, the fiasco has been noted, acknowledged, and a remedial update is apparently en route to the Google Play Store.
Software security issues are more common than most of us are comfortable with, but thanks to the way in which we consume apps on our mobile devices, many companies now have large inventories of personal details and information at their disposal. This is, in itself, no big deal, but when a company like eBay or Spotify indicates that these databases may have been accessed by an individual or entity with malicious intent, panic tends to ensue.
In this instance, Spotify has dealt with an issue that saw just the one Android user compromised, and has noted that an update will be forthcoming. During the next couple of days, Spotify for Android users may be asked to re-enter their login details as part of the process to protect its users. Whilst this may be of minor inconvenience – offline playlists will, after all, need to be re-downloaded as a consequence – it certainly doesn’t compare with having to contact support over a compromised account.
As far as we can make out, this violation doesn’t extend to those on iOS, Windows Phone or the Spotify Web service. Regardless, though, always ensure your password is secure, unique, and difficult for somebody else to guess easily.
Given that only one person is known to have been compromised in the whole situation, we trust that Spotify has this pretty well contained, and as far has account violations go, this one is about as low-key as it could get. Still, though, it would be naive of Spotify to remain complacent, and it’s good to see the streamer taking steps to ensure that no other user encounters the same issue at any point.
When the update rolls out in the future, it’s best to update immediately without hesitation.
(Source: Spotify)
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