The makers of popular women’s fitness app Traininpink have commenced legal proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against Adelaide-based software developer PixelForce, claiming that the company breached its contract and conducted “defective development work” over a period of several years.
“We allege that PixelForce overcharged Traininpink and took advantage of our lack of in-house engineering expertise. We invested in a substantial monthly retainer and expected that PixelForce’s expertise would protect us from cyber issues and commercial risk,” Traininpink Co-founder Matteo Minero said in a statement.
“After exhausting all efforts to resolve these serious contractual issues directly, we have been forced to pursue these matters through the Australian legal system.”
Traininpink said it had paid PixelForce $8.8 million over a five-year period, and in that time produced an app that was riddled with cyber security risks, according to independent review of the platform conducted by Australian cyber security firm CyberCX.
“CyberCX’s independent review ranked the security risks as high, identifying a litany of coding vulnerabilities,” Minero said.
“Its assessment found that PixelForce failed to address six of the ten most critical security risks recognised across the app development sector.
“Once we became aware of the coding vulnerabilities, we commissioned a detailed independent risk assessment, and swiftly established our in-house tech team to address these findings.”
Minero said that despite the adverse findings, no customer data had been accessed or compromised.
We are deeply disappointed by the actions of PixelForce Systems, which we allege breached its contractual obligations, delivered defective work and overbilled us for several years,” Minero said.
A case management hearing was conducted on September 24, with next steps to be determined. Traininpink is seeking $5.65 million in compensation.
Cyber Daily has reached out to PixelForce for comment.
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