Hackers claim they've accessed hundreds of thousands of nude images from Snapchat users, a site that reports that half of its users range between the ages of 13 and 17 years old.
The images were said to have been accessed from Snapsave, a third-party app that enables users of the ephemeral messaging app Snapchat to save media indefinitely.
In response to initial reports that indicating the hackers had accessed its servers, Snapchat released the following statement:
"We can confirm that Snapchat's servers were never breached and were not the source of these leaks. 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. We vigilantly monitor the App Store and Google Play for illegal third-party apps and have succeeded in getting many of these removed."
Hackers are said to have been collecting Snapsave data for years, amassing a collection of siphoned photos and videos that weighs in at approximately 13 GB. The massive cache of hacked photos hasn't been leaked online in full, with only purported proofs released on Oct. 9, but the hackers claim they'll release the lot on Oct. 12.
The hackers purport to have tagged account names with the stolen images. However, Snapsave developer Georgie Casey said his company's app has never logged user credentials and Snapsave had nothing to do with the alleged leaks.
There has been evidence the alleged collection of stolen images is, at least in part, a fabrication of fake images, as some users who viewed screenshots of the collection reported finding some of the pictures hosted on other sites. Regardless of the authenticity of the images, Mark James, a security specialist from ESET, an IT security company, has called for Snapchat to step up its security.
"For them to just turn round and say, 'It's the users' fault,' does seem harsh," said James. "They give the perception it is safe, they need to make it safe. They need to crack down on people's ability to access their data."
If the Snapsave breach is indeed authentic, it would make the collection of stolen images much larger than that released in the hack of Apple's iCloud servers. Apple has stepped up iCloud security since hackers leaked nude images of celebrities from the servers, but the hackers have indicated that they aren't done release their collections of stolen pictures.
