Was Your Snapchat Or Skype Account Hacked? Millions Of Usernames, Phone Numbers Leaked On New Year's Day

While it may be the New Year for some, Snapchat and Skype are already experiencing serious trouble in 2014. The popular photo-sharing app suffered greatly with over 4.6 million of US and Canadians users have personal information compromised. Snapchat had their phone numbers, and respective usernames leaked online. The still anonymous group of hackers took the large amount of information and published it on a website aptly entitled snapchatdb.info. The website provided the leaked phone numbers with the last two digits censored out “for now” in attempt to “minimize spam and abuse.”

However, the hackers don't seem interested in actually protecting anyone’s information, according to RT the site claims that if a user wishes to receive an uncensored version of the database, they would release it “under certain circumstances.” The website is now suspended; however the hackers recently contacted TechCrunch explaining their reasoning behind the leak. “Our motivation behind the release was to raise the public awareness around the issue, and also put public pressure on Snapchat to get this exploit fixed. It is understandable that tech start-ups have limited resources but security and privacy should not be a secondary goal. Security matters as much as user experience does.” This is not the first time the popular app has been called out for their lack of security. The possibility of a leak was exposed almost immediately following Snapchat’s rise in recognition. Australian company, Gibson Securities exposed the app’s vulnerabilities, when they published an expansive list of how someone could exploit their easily accessible firewalls.

Another well-known Internet name brutally hacked was Skype; the online video calling service is owned by Microsoft and was hacked by a group claiming to be the Syrian Electronic Army. The social media Twitter account and Skype’s blog were taking over by the SEA, who in addition to being computer hackers, support the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. They have been crediting with previously hacking both Twitter and the New York Times, both, which were considered previously impenetrable sites. The group’s purpose behind the hack was to expose the well documented spying of the NSA. The group tweeted out warning messages against Skype’s parent company Microsoft, writing, “Don't use Microsoft emails (hotmail, outlook). They are monitoring your accounts and selling the data to the governments." In addition to this tweet, the hackers claimed responsibility writing, "Hacked by Syrian Electronic Army.. Stop Spying!" All tweets and blog posts from the Sea have since been removed.

If you are a user of either of these Internet services be sure to check all personal information, and take the necessary steps to protect yourself. If a Skype user, be sure to change your password and perhaps even delete your account and create a new one. However if you are a Snapchat user, your information was heavily compromised, meaning more drastic steps are necessary. First visit the site GS Lookup-Snapchat to check if yours was one of the 4.6 million phone numbers leaked. After entering in your Snapchat username, users will discover if their number was included on the leaked list. If the website indicates that your personal information has in fact been released be sure to log on to the Snapchat website and delete your account.