Computer Security Massive 13GB Snapchat 'Hack' Leaked Thousands of Private...

Massive 13GB Snapchat 'Hack' Leaked Thousands of Private Videos and Photos

snapchat privacy data leakThe perpetual embattlement of online privacy has captivated many, and for good reason. How would you like your privacy invaded with multiple photos of private moments plastered all over the Internet ready for any creepy person to take and use for their benefit? We are guessing this wouldn't sit well with you would it? As it turns out, a multitude of individuals, including many A-list celebrities, thought the popular Snapchat service would be a safe haven to briefly store and quickly share private photos with them later vanishing into thin air. They thought wrong and now are up in arms due to 13GBs-worth of information leaked, including photos, videos and other personal data, putting Snapchat users at serious risk.

Snapchat is an instant-photo messaging application that is designed by Josh Meyers, Reggie Brown and Bobby Murphy in collaboration with Stanford University students. Users can take photos, record videos, add and edit texts and drawings, and then send it to their friends and family. Supposedly, all contents created with this application are to vanish seconds later from any database or server. The Snapchat application became quite popular ever since it was released in September 2011. It became highly popular among teenagers, since it enables them to send messages under the shape of photos and videos, making conversations even simpler.

And yet, a huge amount of Snapchat images and videos were reported to have been published online by hackers. It all started late Thursday October 9th when cybercriminals began putting 90,000 private photos and 9,000 Snapchat videos made by users. On Friday October 10th, Snapchat released an official statement claiming that there was no breach into the company's servers and that they are not the source of this huge leak. According to representatives from the San-Francisco-based company, 'Snapchatters were victimized' since they used a third-party application to send and to receive 'Snaps'.

According to researchers, the audience using the Snapchat application are 17 years old or younger. This poses a problem for parents as well as the young users. It became clear that hackers have collected a growing database of 13 gigabytes that consists of imagery and videos. Snapchat was in a hurry to point out to the public that there was no breach to their servers and that this is the fault of a third-party company.

The leak is referred to as 'The Snappening' and people affected by it are mostly from Europe, so is 32 percent of Snapchat's overall audience. The Daily Beast can confirm that the leak is genuine and that this is no rumor. It turns out that, Snapsaved.com is the one that collected data from Snapchat users for years, and now their data center was breached by unknown attackers. Initially, Snapsaved allowed Snapchat users to maintain an online library, and thus to view 'unread' messages. According to Business Insider, Snapsaved.com is now down after the huge leak.

In addition to that, Snapsaved Facebook page administrator claims that the company 'tried to cleanse the database of inappropriate images as often as possible', this would mean that there is a person that manually goes through every and each one of them. It was also stated that 'As soon as we discovered the breach in our systems, we immediately deleted the entire website and the database'. He also added that that the amount of the leak is in fact 500MB of contents, not 13 gigabytes as the original claim by hackers stated.

As we mesh into today's social culture, we should always be mindful of how services like Snapchat are a target on the radar screens of computer hackers. Taking the proper proactive steps to change your passwords to online accounts while utilizing a different login password for each is one of the many simple ways to help us deal with privacy leak issues like this one.

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