Day: May 30, 2019

A database containing records of tens of millions of users of various dating apps has been found publicly accessible, according to a researcher who says it remains unclear who amassed the data.

In a blog Wednesday, security researcher Jeremiah Fowler said he discovered the database and that it was not protected by so much as a password. The 42.5 million records, which appeared to belong to multiple apps, were stored on a U.S.-based server and largely contained the IP addresses and location data of American users.

The apps to which the data belongs include Cougardating, Christiansfinder, Mingler, Fwbs (friends with benefits), and “TS,” which Fowler speculates is likely short for “transsexual.”

The database also contained Chinese text, he said, leading him to believe its owner is also Chinese.

“What really struck me as odd was that despite all of them using the same database, they claim to be developed by separate companies or individuals that do not seem to match up with each other,” he wrote in a blog post detailing his findings. “The Whois registration for one of the sites uses what appears to be a fake address and phone number.”

Gizmodo attempted reached out to Christiansfinder for comment, but the email address listed on its website bounced back. The other app developers could not be reached.

Fowler told CyberScoop that while he wasn’t implicating the developers behind the apps of doing anything nefarious, the fact that they’d gone to such lengths to conceal their identities was inherently suspicious.

In addition to IP and location data, the database includes users’ account names and ages. However, there was no personally identifiable information, or PII, a term that encompasses information such as real names, physical addresses, and Social Security numbers.

Fowler notes that a lot of people tend to reuse account names and that can be used as a type of fingerprint. “This makes it extremely easy for someone to find and identify you with very little information,” he said. “Nearly each unique username I checked appeared on multiple dating sites, forums, and other public places.”

Researchers generally wait until exposed databases are taken down before going public. But at time of writing, the database remains online, despite Fowler attempts to notify the host. He disclosed his discovery to raise awareness among users of the apps that their private data is leaking online.

There’s a dark secret lurking behind all the promised benefits of the impending 5G networks slowing coming online around the world: All that extra speed and bandwidth is going to make it really hard to stay within your monthly data limits, as the BBC recently discovered with its first live segment streamed over 5G.

Today, EE, one of the UK’s cellular providers, fired up its 5G network in six cities across the country including Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London, and Manchester. To help illustrate one of 5G’s biggest advantages over previous wireless networks—its ability to deliver broadband speeds without wires—the BBC had reporter Rory Cellan-Jones do a live report during its BBC Breakfast program that was streamed over EE’s 5G network.

You can watch the segment here, but needless to say, the quality of the image is excellent, with no compression artifacts, hiccups, or random freezes that happen quite often when live broadcasts are streamed over older 4G and 3G networks. But EE’s first 5G networks aren’t perfect. While testing one of the few 5G-capable smartphones currently available, Jones found that the connection speed went up and down depending on where he stood—a problem that should eventually be alleviated once 5G towers are more prevalent and able to provide thorough, reliable coverage.

However, the BBC Breakfast segment was actually delayed by 15 minutes when the cellular equipment (provided by Huawei) they were using to stream the broadcast suddenly stopped working. But it wasn’t a problem with the 5G network; the SIM card used for the live stream had simply reached its data cap, which is a problem that many users will inevitably experience once they start streaming 4K Netflix movies to their phones every morning on their commutes to work.

With carriers already introducing additional charges to allow existing smartphones to just use 5G networks, your cellphone bill is going to inevitably get quite expensive once you realize you need heaps more data every month.

This is the GameShell, a retro gaming handheld that I built from a kit. I clipped and trimmed the plastic pieces, inserted the circuit boards, connected the wires and snapped it all together. It plays old games, emulated titles and homebrew software. It’s pleasing that something I built does those things.

The folks at Clockwork did most of the work, to be fair. They created the ClockworkPi, the small development board that powers the GameShell. It’s a small chip powered by a quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU, a Mali GPU and 1GB DDR3 memory. It’s got Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a micro HDMI port to output to a monitor and a slot for a micro SD card for storage. It’s an excellent base for a modestly-powered portable emulator box.

Along with the ClockworkPi, the GameShell also has a 2.7 inch TFT RPG display that runs at 60 frames-per-second. There’s an input board with a directional pad, ABXY buttons and a couple of additional inputs. There’s also a tiny two-channel speaker, a 3.7V 1200 mAh rechargeable battery and an optional row of five additional buttons that can snap onto the back of the GameShell’s case.

I mention these components separately, because that’s how they are assembled. Here’s what comes in the GameShell kit.