Millions of Snapchat users have had their usernames and phone numbers seized and posted on the Internet.
The information of those affected, some 4.6 million Snapchat users, were posted on a website titled SnapchatDB, free for anyone to download, BGR, a technology news site, reported.
All of the digits in the phone numbers were visible except for the last two, hidden "in order to minimize spam and abuse," BGR reported. However, the hackers claimed that "under certain circumstances" they would consider revealing all of the numbers. The numbers were taken down by noon on New Years Day.
The breach comes a week after a security company revealed that Snapchat's security was insufficient. Gibson Security said in a report released Christmas day that there were gaps in the program's software, leaving the information of its users in danger of being compromised.
Snapchat responded to the report in a blog post, saying they addressed the issue and "recently added additional counter-measures and continue to make improvements to combat spam and abuse."
The operators of SnapchatDB demonstrated otherwise.
"Even now the exploit persists," SnaptchatDB said in a statement obtained by The Washington Post. "It is still possible to scrape this data on a large scale. Their latest changes are still not too hart to circumvent."
Snapchat did not reply to requests for comment, The Washington Post reported.
"This information was acquired through the recently patched Snaptchat exploit and is being shared with the public to raise awareness on the issue," the owner of SnaptchatDB said, according to BGR. "The company was too reluctant at patching the exploit until they knew it was too late and companies that we trust with our information should be more careful when dealing with it."
Snapchat was the sixth-most downloaded Apple application of 2013, beating out Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Design & Trend reported.
