Venmo Just Sealed Up a Scary Security Loophole
When you operate on a cashless basis, you rely HEAVILY on your friends (thanks, guys!) and your Venmo account. But we just found out that there was a major security problem for all iPhone Venmo users that we had no idea about — and all of our bank accounts were in danger.
Venmo just fixed the problem, but up until today, there was a hack that allowed anybody who gained access to an iPhone to drain your account up to $2,999.99. Using Siri, hackers could send a text message to Venmo and steal money from an unlocked phone. By sending a text message to 86753 (all done via Siri) on a locked phone, thieves could get away with up to $299.99 at a time.
But now Venmo has responded and closed the scary loophole: It’s no longer possible to transfer money on Venmo using just a text. While this is bummer news for anybody that used Venmo on a phone that was not supported by the service, it’s great news for any iPhone user that relied on it (re: us).
Does this change how you use Venmo? Let us know @BritandCo!
(h/t 9to5 Mac; photos via Getty)