The temporary photo-sharing app Snapchat has been hacked with its 4.6 million usernames and associated phone numbers that have been compiled into a database, according to MSN News.
The hacking took place through an API exploit in which Snapchat was actually warned many months ago. According to Gibson Security, there was a way to use Snapchat's friend finder to get high quantities of phone numbers as well as usernames of its users.
Snapchat brushed off the security's observation and come Christmas Eve, Gibson Security posted its full instructions, the report said.
This time, Snapchat responded to Gibson's instructions via a blog entry completely dismissing the latter's concerns. In the blog entry, Snapchat said that it had "implemented various safeguards" in order to make the suggested vulnerability "more difficult to do."
Also in the blog entry, Snapchat concluded and said "Happy Snapping!"
In the morning of Januray 2, a database that has been taken offline, but contain 4.6 million usernames and phone numbers were posted as if to demonstrate the vulnerability of Snapchat and that it isn't doing enough to safeguard its users' data.
"Even now the exploit persists," SnapchatDB said in a statement, as reported by the Washington Post. "It is still possible to scrape this data on a large scale. Their latest changes are still not too hard to circumvent."
If the accusations that Snapchat didn't act in a timely manner considering Gibson Security's warnings, it implies that Snapchat is not serious about the security of its business and users. This is especially true with the privacy of its vanishing photos that are meant to be provided its users in the first place.
The most recent Snapchat hacking is another flaw in the apps problem-lade security. According to Gibson Security, they have also found several other examples of problems and potential API exploits. It said that so Snapchat had not addressed these problems or had them fixed months after.
Hackers have also found a way to save or access photos and videos that were sent through Snapchat service. To experts, this is very alarming considering that
As of this report, Snapchat is still slow to comment from media requests.
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