After posting threats to 4Chan on Friday, hackers have released the database containing 13 gigabytes of Snapchat photos and videos on Sunday. According to The Guardian on Monday, a website called Snapsaved.com is the actual source of the leaked images .
If you are familiar with Snapchat, you know that users will send images to another person with the expectation that the image will disappear after as many as 10 seconds. If a recipient takes a screenshot of the image, Snapchat is designed to let the sender know. Third-party apps however have popped up to get around this security feature. Though Snapchat says it looks for apps in the App store and the Google Play store, a website seems to have slipped past its radar.
The website, Snapsaved.com, had users sign in to SnapChat via their website, which allowed users to view Snapchat photos on a website and would allow users to save photos without alerting the sender. Snapsaved also stored the photos and videos in its database. It appears the website has been offline for months.
On Saturday, the Snapsaved announced on its Facebook that it had experienced a breach, due to a ‘misconfiguration,’ outing itself as the source of the photos that hackers threatened to leak. In their post, Snapsaved stated, “As soon as we discovered the breach in our systems, we immediately deleted the entire website and the database Associated with it. As far as we can tell, the breach has effected 500MB of images, and 0 personal information From the database. (sic)”
The post stated that the threats to release the photos were exaggerated and that the hacker wouldn’t have sufficient information. However, the database has been made available for download according to The Guardian on Sunday. Now, with Snapsaved admitting they are the source of the images, the next step is unclear.
As with the original incident of leaked nude celebrity photos, or The Fappening, this latest leak, dubbed the ‘Snappening,’ may not result in charges or a clear course of action right away. Right now, reports indicate many NSFW images are of individuals from the ages of 13-17 and there are concerns that those who download the database and view the files could face criminal charges for child porn.
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