4.6 Million Snapchat Usernames And Phone Numbers Leaked

4.6 million North American Snapchat users have had their phone numbers and usernames leaked online. The revelation came from the unofficial site SnapchapDB, which allows open access to two files: an SQL dump and CSV text. These show details of the photo-sharing app’s users and their location.

SnapchatDB has said that it has censored the last two digits of phone numbers in order “to minimize spam and abuse,” but people can request the uncensored database. It has also said that those downloading the information can “find phone number information associated with Facebook and Twitter accounts, or simply to figure out the phone numbers of people you wish to get in touch with.”

It was only a week ago that Snapchat claimed to have addressed issues with a security problem raised by the research group Gibson Security, which discovered a security hole in the app’s “find friends with phone numbers” function back in August.

In a blog post last week, Snapchat admitted that if someone could upload a huge amount of phone numbers, it would be able to match usernames to telephone numbers. But it tried to downplay the issue, saying it was only a theory and that the company had “implemented various safeguards to make it more difficult” to carry out such an action.

When commenting on the leak, SnapchatDB has said that the 4.6 million usernames and passwords were obtained “through the recently patched Snapchat exploit,” and that the information “is being shared with the public to raise awareness on the issue.”

[Image via mobile.pro]

SOURCE: http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/1/5262740/4-6-million-snapchat-phone-numbers-and-usernames-leaked