On Tuesday anonymous hackers used a known security flaw in the Snapchat photo messaging app to access data on 4.6 million users, including names and phone numbers. The hackers then posted a copy of the data on a site called SnapchatDB.info
This database contains username and phone number pairs of a vast majority of the Snapchat users. This information was acquired through the recently patched Snapchat exploit and is being shared with the public to raise awareness on the issue.
Minimally the Snapchat user data can now be used to launch targeted spam attacks, but worse, if your username/phone number is shared with other websites then hackers can use this information to gain access to your other accounts/services.
Gibson Security researchers were some of the first to identify the Snapchat vulnerability back in August, and they have now launched a website for users to verify whether their information was exposed in the Snapchat hack.
The Snapchat’s failure to resolve the vulnerability used in this hack is only the latest in a growing number of companies to disregard security problems reported by researchers such as Gibson Security.