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Slack Group Chatting App Hacked, Company Implements 2 Factor Authentication

slack app

Slack, the popular work-based chat application, announced this week that its database was breached, exposing users’ emails and profile information.

On its corporate blog, Slack announced it was hacked over a period of four days in February. The hack reportedly exposed many users’ data, including email addresses, usernames, encrypted passwords as well as any phone numbers or Skype IDs associated with a user account, Wired reported.

While Slack says that the passwords were encrypted well enough to be unreadable to the thieves, it did say that “suspicious activity” was detected on a “small number” of accounts, which indicates that some communications were fully exposed to the hackers.

[quote text_size=”small” author=”– Anne Toth” author_title=”Slack Vice President”]

We are very aware that our service is essential to many teams. Earning your trust through the operation of a secure service will always be our highest priority. We deeply regret this incident and apologize to you, and to everyone who relies on Slack, for the inconvenience.

[/quote]

In response to the hack, Slack has started to offer a two-factor authentication feature that requires users to enter a one-time password that is sent to a phone, along with the usual login credentials. The company has also enabled a “kill switch” for administrators that allows them to log out all users of a Slack installation and reset the users’ passwords.

Since last year, the popularity of Slack has exploded with half a million daily users and a company valuation of $2.8 billion. The breach comes as new investors agreed to give the app $160 million in extra venture funding, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Less than two months ago, HipChat, a similar office chat app that competes with Slack, disclosed a data breach of its own.

Instead of using standard corporate email, Slack works like an ongoing text message chat between users, with the ability to send images and links to external sites. More than 135,000 of Slack’s users pay a monthly fee of $6.67 per person or more.

Slack users can expect to see more phishing attempts as their email addresses have been stolen, including unsolicited emails with attachments that may contain malware.

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