Houseparty App Offers $1M Reward To Unmask Entity Behind Hacking Smear Campaign

Houseparty, a video conferencing desktop and mobile application, said it would pay a $1 million bounty to anyone who could unmask the entity behind what the company described as "a paid commercial smear campaign." From a report: The company's apparent anger comes after Houseparty has been at the center of media reports published yesterday by three British tabloids. The Sun, the Express, and Mirror Online reported on Monday on a large number of Houseparty users claiming they had social media accounts hacked and taken over after installing the video conferencing app on their smartphones. Users reported having Netflix, eBay, Instagram, Snapchat, and Spotify accounts taken over; however, very few were able to provide details about what really happened. Houseparty officials feel they're now being defamed unjustly in a game of dirty politics.

It was Russia

[kwelch007]

Prove me wrong

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[AmiMoJo]

It's a cunning plan. They were hacked so to cover it up offer $1m that they know they will never have to pay out because there is no smear campaign, only genuine victims.

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[pgmrdlm]

I would ask if they have documented proof that they were not hacked? Meaning, did that post that information when they offered the award.

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[DRJlaw]

I would ask if they have documented proof that they were not hacked? Meaning, did that post that information when they offered the award.

Your logical fallacy is proving non-existence [logicallyfallacious.com].

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[ShanghaiBill]

Your logical fallacy is proving non-existence [logicallyfallacious.com].

Indeed. If there was no hack, they should sue the newspapers under British libel laws, which are much harsher than libel laws in America. They don't have to prove that the papers knowingly published false information, only that they did so with reckless disregard for the truth.

hacked again

[hawk]

They actually only offered $100,000.

Enraged at this disrespect, the hackers struck again to raise the bounty to an amount that assuaged their egos. :)

hawk

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[Mr. Dollar Ton]

You're wrong. It was North Korea. Iran. And Venezuela.

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[ls671]

Nah, none of the above! I know for sure who did it because it was me! Now, where is my $1 million?

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[Khyber]

See the number next to your name? There ya go, plus extra added in for taxes!

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[thegarbz]

Prove me wrong

Houseparty is owned by EPIC. There are plenty of Americans and Europeans who would like to see them bleed too.

No such thing as bad publicity

[93 Escort Wagon]

Especially if you’re a company who people haven’t heard of.

reusing log-in credentials

[phalse phace]

The Sun, the Express, and Mirror Online reported on Monday on a large number of Houseparty users claiming they had social media accounts hacked and taken over after installing the video conferencing app on their smartphones. Users reported having Netflix, eBay, Instagram, Snapchat, and Spotify accounts taken over...

A hack of Houseparty lead to Netflix, eBay, Instagram, Snapchat, and Spotify accounts getting taken over too?

These people must've been using the same log-in credentials for those sites/services.

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[BeerFartMoron]

A hack of Houseparty lead to Netflix, eBay, Instagram, Snapchat, and Spotify accounts getting taken over too?

These people must've been using the same log-in credentials for those sites/services.

And plausibly Houseparty is then storing them as plaintext on a world readable S3 bucket.

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[93 Escort Wagon]

Alternatively, Houseparty is pulling a Facebook and trying to keep people inside their garden for everything - so they're somehow linking their service to those other services.

"Save time - log into Houseparty and be automatically connected to your Netflix, Instagram, and Snapchat accounts!"