Balkan & Patterson Investigates Snapchat Security Leak

Balkan & Patterson LLP is investigating the alleged massive security breach on the website Snapchat. Recently, a hacker website claimed that it had a list of the user names and phone numbers for 4.6 million people on Snapchat, which is an app that has gained recent popularity. 

Media sources say that the company behind Snapchat, a 2-year-old app that offers privacy in sending pictures between phones, was apparently warned about the potential for hacking months ago. According to media sources, in August, the Internet security group Gibson Security, or GibsonSec, purportedly wrote that it found a vulnerability in Snapchat’s friend-finder feature that would allow a hacker to discover the phone numbers behind user names in the app. When a Snapchat user signs up, he can privately register a phone number so friends who have the user in their phones’ address books can find him in the app. GibsonSec apparently reported that if a hacker uploaded a large list of numbers to a phone, the hacker could then find the phone number behind a Snapchat name.

Four months later, according to media sources, Snapchat allegedly dismissed the potential security problem in response to another statement on the GibsonSec website, this one published Christmas Eve. The security company purportedly said the issue hadn’t been resolved.

The attorneys at Balkan & Patterson are experienced in class action litigation. If you were a Snapchat consumer and believe you may have been a victim of this security breach, please contact us immediately at 561-750-9191 and we will review your case at no charge.