As we live in a time of major leaks on several different levels (from Snapchat and iCloud all the way up to government information), now the latest victim of insecure online procedures is the hackers Starbucks app scandal, as it seems there are a number of people draining bank accounts from the chain's app.
Last year, the world saw how dozens of celebrities' iCloud accounts were hacked and many female celebrities had their bodies revealed in compromising private shots (most notably Jennifer Lawrence, arguably the victim with the highest profile and of whom there was the most information), and now it's hackers' Starbucks app move making headlines.
According to CNN Money, the hackers' Starbucks app situation became public last Wednesday, when the coffee chain acknowledged a security breach in their customer rewards accounts that had led to many people's bank accounts being drained.
The novelty of the app is that it allows customers to pay for their coffee only by using their phones, using gift cards or ultimately even connecting to Paypal or personal bank accounts, and that's just the way the hackers' Starbucks app breach ended up happening.
Quartz reports that the hackers' Starbucks app breach went like this: victims realized that their rewards accounts had been used to buy Starbucks gift cards that were worth well into the hundreds of dollars, then selling them on the black market; the way this worked was using existing balances to buy gift cards well into the hundreds of dollars using the app's auto-fill function when purchasing new cards.
CNBC interviewed Avivah Litan, a security analyst for Gartner, who spoke that the move is part of a new trend in the world of fraud, involving third-party companies that create their own ways to pay for services online, and they're usually easier to hack than those from major financial institutions, leaving customers vulnerable.
The hackers' Starbucks app could potentially reach about 16 million people, currently the number of consumers who use the highly popular app.
