Snapchat has posted on their blog about the which was revealed recently, and may have affected up to 4.6 million users of the messaging service.
The company has said that the hack was an ‘abuse’ of its API, the company previously said before the hack that it was theoretically possible for this sort of thing to happen.
A security group first published a report about potential Find Friends abuse in August 2013. Shortly thereafter, we implemented practices like rate limiting aimed at addressing these concerns. On Christmas Eve, that same group publicly documented our API, making it easier for individuals to abuse our service and violate our Terms of Use.
We acknowledged in a blog post last Friday that it was possible for an attacker to use the functionality of Find Friends to upload a large number of random phone numbers and match them with Snapchat usernames. On New Years Eve, an attacker released a database of partially redacted phone numbers and usernames. No other information, including Snaps, was leaked or accessed in these attacks.
Snapchat have said that they will be releasing a software update to their app which will fix the problem, you can find out more details over at their blog at the link below.
Source Snapchat, TechCrunch
Latest Geeky Gadgets Deals
Disclosure: Some of our articles include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, Geeky Gadgets may earn an affiliate commission. Learn about our Disclosure Policy.
