According to 4chan- the infamous website which last month published stolen naked pictures from over 100 female celebrities- hackers targeted apps which allowed users to save received images for a certain period of time.
Snapchat is used by many couples as a means to send personal pictures as images delete themselves within seconds of the file being opened.
Apps such as Save Snap and users screen grabbing Snapchat messages mean that some personal pictures can be saved onto iClouds and computers, and even uploaded online.
Worryingly, according to the NSPCC many youngsters under the age of legal consent use the image sharing app to share pictures of themselves to boyfriends and girlfriends whilst unclothed.
The charity discovered that as many as 40% of youngsters have shared sexual images.
Disturbingly, the hackers have been ‘bragging’ that such images will be uploaded within the next few days.
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The owners of Snapchat say that their security was never breached, despite hackers being able to steal private images from users.
A spokesperson said: “Snapchatters were victimised by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practise we expressly prohibit in our terms of use because they compromise users’ security.”
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