House Party app team offer $1 million bounty for source of smear campaign

The developers behind the House Party App have offered a $1,000,000 bounty to anyone who can provide evidence of who is behind what they call a “paid commercial smear campaign” that resulted in numerous messages spreading online accusing their app of hacking.

As more and more people across the world go into lockdown in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the download rates of apps designed to keep people connected across the Internet skyrocketed. None more than the House Party app that allows people to video chat with their friends and play games, all from their smartphones.

But at the start of the week, warnings began to proliferate across social media claiming the House Party app was somehow hacking into other apps on a user’s phone. (We looked into the claims here.) Then the rumours claimed the app was clearing the bank accounts of anyone who used it. Those social media messages were picked up by some British tabloids (The Sun, The Mirror and The Express) and the warnings became amplified. Hours later, anything suspicious was being squarely blamed on the House Party app.

Despite none of the warnings being able to explain how the House Party app was able to collect information on third party apps, access bank accounts or otherwise hack a person’s online accounts, the warnings went viral, and the people behind the House Party app have said that they believe it is the result of a smear campaign.

And not only that, but the company is offering a million dollars to anyone who can provide proof of who started it.

We are investigating indications that the recent hacking rumors were spread by a paid commercial smear campaign to harm Houseparty. We are offering a $1,000,000 bounty for the first individual to provide proof of such a campaign to bounty@houseparty.com

The House Party app is owned by Epic Games, the same company behind the Fortnite video game, which was one of the most popular video games of the last decade. Downloads of the app skyrocketed to 130,000 a week in February to over two million a week by mid-March. On Monday, the House Party team tweeted that their service is secure and had not been used to collect information on other apps.

Why do people think House Party has been hacking them?

While some of the initial claims may have been the result of a smear campaign, it’s clear that many social media users genuinely do believe the app has been the reason behind suspicious activity they’ve experienced. Many have pointed to emails they’ve received claiming that someone has (or has attempted to) access their other online accounts, like Spotify and Netflix.

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It’s likely that the recent and sudden surge in downloads of the House Party app could be to blame. Online accounts are being compromised all of the time – the result of credential stuffing attacks because of data breaches or because users compromise their own security – and if a person doesn’t understand why something suspicious occurred, they could feel justified in blaming their most recently downloaded app, which for a large number of people is the House Party app. Especially if that app is already having these accusations thrown in their direction.
 
Whatever the outcome of the House Party app’s bounty challenge, in the meantime we recommend ensuring you use a unique password for each online account to avoid credential stuffing attacks (where crooks use a password and email leaked from one service and attempt to try it on other services to see if a user reuses the same password and email combination) and to avoid clicking on links in unexpected emails, social media messages and texts.