Thousands of photos exchanged via Snapchat have been stolen and published online: it’s a privacy and security alert.
Another big problem for the staff of Snapchat: for a few hours now, it has been noticed that an archive consisting of thousands of photos of users of the popular app has appeared online.
Concern is spreading among users of this messaging system, as their content has ended up online and is about to be seen by many people, known or otherwise.
This enormous database – stolen, it is not yet clear how and for what purpose – was “publicized” by 4chan: in fact, it was posted here, with a direct link to the site viralpop.com.
From here, finally, it is possible not only to download all the material but also to perform specific searches: you can explore the database by searching for the username of your contacts, thus finding images and videos exchanged via Snapchat in just a few clicks.
The alarm generated panic and naturally involved the Snapchat staff themselves.
However, an official communication has arrived from the latter, who, via their official Twitter account, state that they have not suffered any attacks or server breaches, therefore the leak of images did not occur from Snapchat.
All accusations are sent back to the sender, but one wonders, therefore, what could have happened.
The hypothesis outlined by the Snapchat staff is that users who had to ascertain the theft of personal content were most likely victims due to the use of third-party apps.
The hypothesis is that the latter would have “scraped” images and videos over time, managing to replenish a database that is now quite substantial.
There is, however, a second hypothesis, launched on forums and communities that are following the story: perhaps the cause of the material leak is attributable to a bug in the web client “SnapSaved.com”.
It is difficult at the moment to establish with certainty the cause of what happened.
What is certain is that one must always keep in mind the risks of exposing very personal data and material when using online apps and services.
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