Simplistic 'Yo' Messaging App Soars in App Store Charts, Proves Vulnerable to Hacking
The Yo messaging app [Direct Link] debuted earlier this year and recently rocketed up the iOS App Store charts, where it currently sits at number five among top free iPhone apps in the United States. The simplistic app that does nothing more than allow users to ping contacts with a simple "Yo" message may be gaining traction with its quirky ease of use, but a hack, confirmed by Yo founders to TechCrunch, may put users' personal information at risk.
According to the TechCrunch report, a student at Georgia Tech discovered a flaw that allows a nefarious user to discover the phone number of another Yo user, spoof a message from any Yo member and send a text-based push notification to recipient devices. Yo founder Or Arbel confirmed to TechCrunch the service was having "security issues," but did not provide details on the vulnerability, only stating that the issues will be resolved soon.
Founder Or Arbel has now confirmed that Yo was “having security issues”.
He told TechCrunch: “Some of the stuff has been fixed and some we are still working on. We are taking this very seriously.”
He said he could not reveal which hacks were still live. He said the company has brought in a specialist security team to deal with the issues
Arbel said he hoped the security problems would be fixed “in next few hours.”
According to Valleywag, the idea for Yo came from Israeli investor and Mobli CEO Moshe Hogeg, who wanted an easy way to communicate with his secretary. Developer Or Arbel ran with the idea and created the Yo app, which Hogeg uses. Life Before Us LLC, the company created by Abel, recently received $1 million in angel funding to continue development of the Yo app.
Popular Stories
Game emulator apps have come and gone since Apple announced App Store support for them on April 5, but now popular game emulator Delta from developer Riley Testut is available for download. Testut is known as the developer behind GBA4iOS, an open-source emulator that was available for a brief time more than a decade ago. GBA4iOS led to Delta, an emulator that has been available outside of...
Last September, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro models debuted with a new customizable Action button, offering faster access to a handful of functions, as well as the ability to assign Shortcuts. Apple is poised to include the feature on all upcoming iPhone 16 models, so we asked iPhone 15 Pro users what their experience has been with the additional button so far. The Action button replaces the switch ...
The lead developer of the multi-emulator app Provenance has told iMore that his team is working towards releasing the app on the App Store, but he did not provide a timeframe. Provenance is a frontend for many existing emulators, and it would allow iPhone and Apple TV users to emulate games released for a wide variety of classic game consoles, including the original PlayStation, GameCube, Wii,...
A decade ago, developer Riley Testut released the GBA4iOS emulator for iOS, and since it was against the rules at the time, Apple put a stop to downloads. Emulators have been a violation of the App Store rules for years, but that changed on April 5 when Apple suddenly reversed course and said that it was allowing retro game emulators on the App Store. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel ...
The first approved Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator for the iPhone and iPad was made available on the App Store today following Apple's rule change. The emulator is called Bimmy, and it was developed by Tom Salvo. On the App Store, Bimmy is described as a tool for testing and playing public domain/"homebrew" games created for the NES, but the app allows you to load ROMs for any...
Top Rated Comments
SO finally users are so dumb they need a special app for each message they send. I think I will make a "What's up?" app and then a few other apps for sending various replies. I can have an entire ecosystem of message apps: "yo", What's Up", "Hey", "duh" and 50 or 100 others. My new message apps will fill the first 10 screens on the home page.
Do I need to translate these to other languages?
This might work even better in Chinese. I can make a huge pile of "one charter apps."
Good god, imagine the disruption! Teen social pecking-orders could be overturned all over the world! Is there no end to the depredations hacker wreak upon us?