Posted by Amidst rising concerns about the inevitable data breaches and thefts that took over the business world without showing signs of slowing down, there’s a niche lying quaintly and hiding risks that garner substantially less attention by the day. The music streaming sector, which every individual navigating the online realm gets in contact with at least once in their lifetime, is masking sensitive data perils that are only voiced when disasters such as the Deezer data breach occur, only to be followed by eternal peace until another colossal music platform mishandles users’ information.
Towards 2022’s final, the news that the global French online music provider had encountered a data breach three years ago leading to the public exposure of details belonging to 240M registered accounts. The compromised security of users, who had details like birthdates, usernames, and email addresses freely taken advantage of by cybercriminals, emphasizes the understated importance of doing what’s in your power to protect your data on the music streaming apps you use.
Let’s dive deeper into one of the most pressing yet quietest data security issues of the decade and see what’s left to do to reduce related risks.
What can we learn from Deezer’s data breach?
Deezer’s data breach represents the largest and most discussed example of unintentional information disclosure on behalf of a global music streaming platform, for the database fissured was enormous. The whole disaster occurred after an unprotected Elasticsearch server made information about more than 73M Deezer users public, which security specialist Bob Diachenko unearthed. They notified the company, which promptly took action to secure the server as a subsequent precaution. Such an accident underscores the need to employ robust data security measures, especially in companies using unsecured servers.
Such info may, whatsoever, get leaked at some point without having you notified ASAP about the repercussions. Whether the data is breached or sold may remain a secret or come to the surface – it’s only up to you how you manage your accounts’ shielding strategies. Similarly, you don’t have to keep quiet and suffer the consequences of such a mishap should you find out you’ve been the victim of a data breach. According to data breach experts at www.databreachcompensationexpert.co.uk, it’s common for impactful outcomes to be witnessed in such accidents, but with the proper specialist by the victim’s side and proof they suffered damages due to a company’s data mismanagement, the losses may be reduced. So, don’t keep quiet, but make justice for yourself should you find yourself in such a daunting position at any point.
Warner Music Group – a months-long security incident targeting customers’ financial data
Warner Music Group (WMG) had witnessed a similarly damaging data breach four years ago, disclosing that a secret party could have stolen users’ payment data, such as payment card details, shipping address, phone number, name, and email and billing addresses. More specifically, only users who made purchases between 25 April and 5 August were targeted and successfully robbed. As per the giant’s disclosures, some users were not impacted by the leakage. However, they took the needed steps to strengthen their security measures in the long term and quickly reached out to the relevant credit card issuers and financial institutions.
Spotify – yet another no-no example of data handling
A security specialist found out that music streaming leader Spotify mishandled users’ data protection and became the victim of a credential stuffing attack, meaning more passwords were tried until unlocked. Spotify got fined 58M kronor for user data mismanagement and an inadequate approach as to how the victims were notified about the encountered data leakage. The GDPR guides how users are informed about the ways their data is used and breached, and the Swedish authorities judged the company’s post-breach practices wrong and unlawful.
The streaming gargantuan is yet another example of how things should not be tackled after consumers and users of different platforms are notified and approached after such a disheartening incident.
What’s to do to protect yourself after all these cyber-attacks?
It’s mainly after the info belonging to 240M users got stolen and the news broke that the world stopped taking the safety of their accounts lightly, regardless of the prominence of the website. Everybody understands that the largest and most used platforms are the treasure troves targeted by the most skilled cyber attackers, for they store astronomical amounts of data. So, how can you better protect your accounts after such threatening data breaches?
What do cybercriminals want from you, and how can you guard that?
One of the most widespread perils is that malevolent hackers use the victims’ data to conduct a range of malicious activities, some of which are discovered within a specific timeframe, whereas others are never unearthed. For instance, if your data is used as a means of exchange between the malicious source and a governmental body, you may not become aware of the activities your information has been involved in. However, if your data ends up in the hands of those seeking out data to take out credit with the stolen identities, you may pray for the bank to notify you ASAP. In that case, you need to immediately freeze your credit and reach out to a credit monitoring service.
Applying this hypothetical situation to the Deezer downfall, you may find yourself needing to change the email address associated with your registered account. Like this, you’ll recognize if an email received from PayPal, Amazon, or your used bank to this email address is a scam. Furthermore, you can employ email aliasing to set up a new account for every platform used, for it is one of the wisest methods to hide your email address from spammers, scammers, and other malevolent actors.
Misstating details? Yes, sure!
Falsified details on your addresses are a pretty smart and unbeatable method to maintain your sensitive info. You can misstate all the info offered to third parties in order for them to become useless for cybercriminals and identity thieves. Not that many music streaming services actually need data like your birth date for purposes that make sense so you have no obligation to hand such data over. Likewise, your gender and name are only your business, so as long as you’re keeping a record of all the data handed over, your listening experience should be unhampered.
The recommended way to go around a notification stating your data has been involved in a data breach is to change your password, with music streaming platforms being only a tiny example. Deezer is only one of the most sounding data breach instances to date, but as you have seen above, many more giants have fallen victim to such malpractices. After the behemoth’s tardy announcement, you may be reconsidering how you use your music accounts.
Data breaches are getting more common by the day and music streaming platforms are not spared. Suppose you’re not feeling safe with one, then you can always find another music streaming application, for there are many less targeted or better shielded.
