More than 90,000 private photographs sent via the Snapchat picture messaging service have been leaked online. The images have apparently been obtained by breaching third-party site Snapsaved.com and not from Snapchat itself.
Snapchat offers a free messaging service with users able to send a message that disappears after ten seconds. However, Snapsaved.com enabled Snapchat images to be saved permanently.
The breach is particularly concerning because most Snapchat users are teenagers - and the service has a reputation for being used when sharing intimate images.
Nicknamed ‘the Snappening’ by some people, this breach is the latest in a series of online hacking incidents that have revealed personal photos.
Snapsaved says 500MB of images have been taken from its servers. It has now closed the site.
[Snapsaved announcement via Facebook; Channel 4 News; The Daily Beast]