Thousands of private Snapchat photos have leaked online

sincity · October 10, 2014

Tens of thousands of private Snapchat photos have leaked online and are circulating around websites like 4Chan thanks to a security breach in a third-party app.

This isn't Snapchat's first security problem, though at least this one allegedly isn't the company's own fault.

Hackers have apparently been collecting private Snapchat photos for multiple years, amassing a 13GB database that they say they plan to make searchable by username.

This leak has been dubbed "The Snappening" by some, in reference to the recent leak of celebrity photos that was rudely called "The Fappening."

Oh Snap

Someone who claimed to be involved in the breach told Business Insider that the photos came from a now-defunct website called SnapSaved.com, which let users view their received Snaps online and save them.

Apparently the site had saved every bit of content that passed through its servers, with usernames attached.

It's unclear if SnapSaved was created maliciously for the sole purpose of eventually leaking the images shared on it, or if hackers gained access to the site's servers without permission.

For its part Snapchat issued a statement confirming that the images came from a third-party source and that its own servers were not hacked.

"Snapchatters were victimized by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our Terms of Use precisely because they compromise our users' security," the company said. "We vigilantly monitor the App Store and Google Play for illegal third-party apps and have succeeded in getting many of these removed."

Since the images are practically guaranteed to contain some nude photos of underage Snapchat users, there will almost certainly be consequences for this.