Slick, an emerging Indian social media app, left an internal database containing users’ personal information exposed to the internet for months. The database included data of school-going children, which made it publicly accessible. This incident raises concerns about the security of personal information stored by technology companies and highlights the need for companies to take appropriate measures to protect user data.
The Slick database contains sensitive information on thousands of users, including their full names, mobile numbers, and dates of birth. The leak is the latest in a series of security breaches at the social networking site.
With a focus on creating an anonymous app for college students that allows them to communicate with each other freely, Slick is one of the latest startups to enter the market. Located in Bengaluru, India, Slick was founded by Archit Nanda after he pivoted his earlier startup CoinMint into a social app.
TechGround reached out to Slick on Friday after they discovered an exposed database that includes information about over 1 million users. Slick secured the database a short time later and ensured that all user data was protected.
The misconfiguration that allowedTechGround access to the database contained entries of over 153,000 users and could also be accessed by an easy-to-guess subdomain on Slick’s main website. Themisconfiguration raises concerns about the security of the database and those that use it.
The researcher also informed the India’s computer emergency response team, known as CERT-In, about the issue. The team is responsible for handling cybersecurity issues and is likely to monitor the situation in order to prevent any further attacks.
Apparently, Slick was able to fix the exposure before anyone else found the database. Without knowing who else discovered it beforehand, it’s unclear if this could have led to any further damage.
Since its debut last year, Slick has become a popular app among Indian millennials. Recently, Nanda took to Twitter to announce that the app had crossed 100,000 downloads- an impressive feat for such a new platform. Although it has faced competition from established platforms in India like WhatsApp and Facebook, Slick’s appeal likely stems from its streamlined design and easy-to-use features. The app is also gaining popularity in other Asian countries like Singapore and China, indicating its long-term potential as a leading messaging platform for the region.
