Houseparty offers bounty for proof that app is secure after smear campaign

The team behind popular video chat app Houseparty are putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to claims that their app was stealing data from users phones resulting in their other app accounts being hacked.

The last few days have seen hundreds of tweets from users who have claimed that their Spotify, Snapchat and other app accounts had been hacked after they downloaded the Houseparty app.

“We have spent the past few weeks feeling humbled and grateful that we can be such a large part of bringing people together during such a hard time”.

Houseparty on Twitter

Hacking claims investigated

Epic Games acquired Houseparty, makers of Fortnite, last year. The company has been quick to speak out against the claims. Epic believes that the tweets could be part of a coordinated campaign to damage Houseparty’s reputation.

After the tweets went viral, Nick Chester, spokesperson for Epic Games, explained:

“Our investigation found that many of the original tweets spreading this claim have been deleted and we’ve noticed Twitter accounts suspended”.

The team added that all Houseparty accounts are safe, adding that the service is secure and “has never been compromised”. In addition, the app doesn’t collect passwords for other sites.

Houseparty’s popularity

Houseparty has been popular with gamers for years. However, it shot to fame recently and has consistently been in the top ten downloaded apps on Google’s app stores in the last month

Millions of new users signed up since governments the world over have begun restricting citizens movement. As at the time of writing, Houseparty has had over 10 million downloads with a rating of 2.3 out of 5 from over 98 000 reviews.

“We are investigating indications that the recent hacking rumours were spread by a paid commercial smear campaign to harm Houseparty. We are offering a $1 000 000 bounty for the first individual to provide proof of such a campaign to bounty@houseparty.com.”

Hopefully, the bounty offered by Houseparty will finally put the questions about Houseparty’s security to bed for good.

Hacking of third-party apps could be ‘unconnected’

No doubt there will be a number of hackers lining up to put the security of the app to the test for the chance at $1 million (R18.3m).

“The fact that you installed Houseparty and then your Spotify account was breached may be entirely and utterly unconnected,” Chester said.

“Hackers use credential stuffing attacks, using passwords scooped up from previous security breaches, all the time in an attempt to break into accounts.”

Whether Houseparty has been the victim of a targeted attack on social media or have massive security, this whole issue will have been of great concern to both Apple and Google.

Both companies are yet to make any statements about the claimed security problems with the Houseparty app.