HIV Dating Company Accuses Researchers of Hacking Database (csoonline.com)

itwbennett writes: Slashdot readers will recall the story posted last week about the misconfiguration of the MongoDB database that powers Hzone, a dating app for the HIV-positive, and the ensuing threat of HIV infection the company hurled at DataBreaches.net, who sent the notification. (Hzone later apologized.) But that's not the end of the story. Among other twists and turns that point to a CEO who was in way over his head, in several emails to Dissent, the admin of DataBreaches.net, Hzone CEO Justin Robert accused Dissent of changing the Hzone user database. But follow-up emails suggest that the company couldn't tell what was accessed or when, as Robert says Hzone doesn't have 'a strong tech team to maintain the site.'

Comments

Re:Normal

[jellomizer]

Well with IT security nowadays it is very hard for a small focused business to survive in today's market.

Back in the 1980's and 1990's we had a slew of applications created by non-developers due to easy to learn languages such as Basic/Visual Basic, FoxPro, DBase, Access, etc... Being that these applications ran on a local network via file shares, with a more or less trusted group of employees. Security was never a concern. So the small company can make a custom app with a very small investment and allow them to be agile to adjust their business processes.

However now with hackers who will blindly attack any system that is vulnerable, or worse the hackers who think they have a mission to expose the bad people in the world. Means you need staff that are specialized in IT security. To keep their data safe, and be able to track and report on vulnerabilities.

This is like forcing a Mom and Pop candy shop to have armed guards on the payroll just in case someone breaks in and steals the candy, and exposes all the candy customers in the store. As to shame them for being the cause of obesity in the world.