Hacking influencer databases

Famous social media influencers are a popular target for hackers.

Mumbai-based social media marketing firm Chtrbox pays influencers to post sponsored content on their accounts. It had a database of ~50 million records that was left exposed without a password, a low hanging fruit for hackers. Each record had a lot of personal information including the influencer’s name, email address, address, phone number etc. It even contained information on how much each account was worth.

Social Bluebook is another platform that connects advertisers with influencers. It claims to have 300,000 influencers on its books. In October 2019 it was hacked, and the entire backend database was stolen in a data breach. The database contained information on 217,000 accounts. The information included influencer names, addresses, and passwords hashed.

Such hacks can be a huge threat not only to influencers themselves, but to the brands that establish affiliation and identities with a few prominent influencers who may be subject to such hacks.