Smartphone messenger app Line,was urging people to change their passwords as Japanese police investigated the hacking of hundreds of accounts. Line has hundreds of milllions users across Asia. Set up in 2011, Line now has more than 400 million users, mainly in Japan and mainland Asia, and is growing fast.
A Line spokesman says,
More than 300 cases of unauthorised access have been confirmed between late May and June 14, including three that involved cash trades resulting in financial loss.
without providing further details.
He says,
We are cooperating with police in investigating the cases, and we are calling for users to change passwords
The accounts were hacked
presumably after shared passwords with other online services were leaked somewhere else,
he said, adding that to the company’s knowledge, all of the breaches occurred in Japan.
The Line app lets users to make free calls, send instant messages and post funny photos or short videos, combining attributes from Facebook, Skype and messaging application WhatsApp. One of Line’s main selling points is its set of “stickers” — funny, cartoon-like figures that users can post to their friends.
Dwango, the operator of the high-profile Niconico video sharing forum, reported last week more than 200,000 accounts had been hacked.