Storified by CBC News Community ·
Wed, Jan 01 2014 14:07:20
While the world was ringing in the new year last night, texting and sending Snapchat messages, hackers were teaching the popular app users and developers a lesson.
If U or your child use #Snapchat 'READ THIS' http://t.co/80n4DKpcQR http://t.co/5UeSnANqfc ·
Jim Gamble
Upon waking up on New Year's Day in a groggy haze from last night's revelry, users of the photo sharing app discovered that a massive bulk of usernames and private phone numbers had been leaked online.
While everyone was drunk last night, hackers published the user names and private phone numbers ("private") of 4.6 million Snapchat profiles
— Dirk Marienfeld ·
Wed, Jan 01 2014 10:39:46
4.6mil. U.S. Snapchat users mobile #'s exposed to 'raise awareness of app's security issues' http://t.co/KtYmIIjgkI http://t.co/7uQMxiMyaU ·
Anonymous Press
Deleted my snapchat app because of all the hackers. Feel free to blow my account up, probably won't be on it for a while.
— Nick Miller ·
Wed, Jan 01 2014 10:24:51
The hackers managed to mine 4.6 million usernames and cellphone numbers from the app. The database was then posted to a site called Snapchat DB, which has since been taken down. The info was posted so that anyone could access the stolen database.
The last two digits in each phone number were blurred. However, the usernames and locations were posted in their entirety. The blurring was meant to retain some privacy and to demonstrate just how damaging a leak such as this can be.
Over 4.5 million Snapchat usernames and phone numbers leaked online Tuesday after hackers posted them online. http://t.co/tuETZHUOOb ·
Chris Knight
In light of this security breach, some developers have put together an online app that allows users to see if their accounts have fallen victim to the hack.
GS Lookup - Snapchat
Snapchat users have been flooding to the site all day to see how vulnerable their account was to the online attack.
Twimg
Awkward my snapchat got leaked... http://t.co/3yTUa3pqrb ·
vivi martell
A firm called Gibson Security warned Snapchat that there was a weakness in its security through its 'Finding Friends through Phone Numbers' option.
Days before the massive hack, Gibson posted instructions on how to extract the info.
On Dec. 27, the company posted a response to this warning on their blog in an attempt to quell nervous users.
"Theoretically, if someone were able to upload a huge set of phone numbers, like every number in an area code, or every possible number in the U.S., they could create a database of the results and match usernames to phone numbers that way.
"Over the past year we’ve implemented various safeguards to make it more difficult to do. We recently added additional counter-measures and continue to make improvements to combat spam and abuse."
Hackers reveal a database with 4.6million phone numbers of people who use snapchat. That'll teach em...
— JJ ·
Wed, Jan 01 2014 10:39:33
According to the Washington Post, the alleged hackers warned on the Snapchat DB that: "Even now the exploit persists. It is still possible to scrape this data on a large scale. Their latest changes are still not too hard to circumvent."
The alleged hackers also sent a statement to technology blog TechCrunch:
"Our motivation behind the release was to raise the public awareness around the issue, and also put public pressure on Snapchat to get this exploit fixed. It is understandable that tech startups have limited resources but security and privacy should not be a secondary goal. Security matters as much as user experience does."
Snapchat has yet to respond.
Uncle Phil is dead and Snapchat hackers are giving everyone your phone number. This year is going downhill fast!
— Jillian Sederholm ·
Wed, Jan 01 2014 10:45:43
Do you use snapchat? Will this information leak make you reconsider your membership?