tech

Yo Gets Hacked By Kids

Aiyoh! Not good, Yo.

Cover image via salon.com

Yo, a messaging app for iPhone and Android that simply lets users send the word "yo," has been hacked just days after it first gained mainstream attention

Image via SAYS.com

Or Arbel, the app's creator, confirmed to Mashable that "a few guys tried to hack" the app overnight and "did succeed to some extent." Yo is now working to resolve the issue.

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The hackers — roommates at Georgia Tech — say they're able to reveal the phone number of any Yo user as well as send spoof messages. They told TechCrunch:

The student emailed TechCrunch detailing what he alleges is the results of the hack: "We can get any Yo user's phone number (I actually texted the founder, and he called me back). We can spoof Yo's from any users, and we can spam any user with as many Yo. We could also send any Yo user a push notification with any text we want (though we decided not to do that)."

techcrunch.com

Founder Or Arbel said he could not reveal which hacks were still live

Image via kinja-img.com

He said the company has brought in a specialist security team to deal with the issues and hoped the security problems would be fixed “in the next few hours.”

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But if you, like some 450,000 other people, downloaded Yo this week to see what all the fuss was about, you might be itching to hit the delete button right now

Unfortunately deleting the app won't remove your personal information from their databases. There's also no way to do that within the app. We asked Yo about this, and Arbel said that they will delete users who ask for it. All you have to do is email [email protected], ask to be removed and that's it. That being said, the company is taking the security flaws seriously and has moved within hours to patch the issues. So follow your heart.

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Read how an app with such less functionality attracted such a hubbub in the first place

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