TeamViewer confirms 'significant' number of user accounts hacked
Last month users reported several instances where their accounts were accessed by online hackers.
Mumbai: A month after users of the remote login service TeamViewer complained about instances of their computers being raided by hackers, numerous critics have speculated that the service itself has been breached.
Last month users reported several instances where their accounts were accessed by online hackers. In many of the cases, these online criminals drained paypal and bank accounts of affected users.
An official TeamViewer spokesperson Axel Schmidt confirmed to technology website Ars Technica that a significant number of accounts have been breached.
However, he still adhered to the company’s earlier statement that the compromises were a result of user passwords that were compromised through a cluster of recently exposed megabreaches, including more than 642 million passwords belonging to users from Linkedin, MySpace, and other services.
In an interview with Ars, Schmidt said that the majority of these breaches are a result of users using the same password for multiple accounts. One more facet he mentioned was the negligence users have towards giving strong passwords.
He said that having one password for many accounts is not a viable option, as it makes the job much easier for the black-hats around the globe.
When asked if hackers managed to bypass TeamViewer’s two-factor authentication, he said there is no ‘conclusive evidence’ that can prove that the two-factor authentication has been compromised.
Another point that he stressed on was related to the claims made by TeamViewer users, stating that the users are just blindly complaining without submitting their log files that can help them investigate and find out the real cause of the attack.
Lastly, he also apologised during the course of the interview to the affected users. He explained that TeamViewers users need to be careful while using it as its main function is to establish a connection between one device and another, which is a bit risky.
“We’re deeply sorry if we offended anyone by our choice of words. It's really important to understand that TeamViewer is a tool that needs to be used sensibly and extremely smartly,” he concluded.