Reports of a 'friendly hack' on text messaging app Snapchat has taken the Internet by storm.. The term friendly was used by analysts because they say that the hackers were making a point that the site had some leaks and that it was possible to hack it.
Snapchat recently turned down an offer for a buyout from Facebook, but now it looks as if it should have made the deal. The hack presumably affects privacy data of 4.5 million users - names and phone numbers of snapchat users.
Although the company did not make an apology, it offered plans for a snapchat hack recovery. It acknowledged that a group first insinuated about a snapchat attack from snapchat's find friends tool in August 2013. Snapchat said in a blog recently that on Christmas Eve, the group published snapchat's API which makes it possible for others to abuse terms and conditions.
On New Year's eve, the snapchat management said that a hacker had misused the find friends tool to obtain names and phone numbers. The site said no snaps were hacked - that's a relief for the snapchat community.
Adding to the snapchat hack recovery efforts, the company announced its commitment to maintaining privacy for users in the community. It suggested that a revamped app would be launched to opt out of the find friends tool, to which snapchat users commented:
justdirectionersthing reblogged this from snapchatme and added:
Oh so we are waiting for an update nowtotaltheatregeek reblogged this from snapchatme and added: If you use snapchat, you should go here to find out if your account info was released or not.
In a similar story, Skype was attacked by cyberwarfare masters, The Syrian Electronic Army, a group that supports President Assad's regime. Yes, you might have recalled this group as the same one that made the world of websites stand still during the conflict over Syria's possession of chemical weapons.
The SEA was responsible for disrupting services from several significant news sites including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and even Twitter.
Skype looks like it took the smart way out. It published "We recently became aware of a targeted cyber attack that led to access to Skype's social media properties, but these credentials were quickly reset. No user information was compromised," sfgate.com reported.
