Well…happy new year. “The more things change…” as the saying goes. Thanks to an insecure API, these two have been exploited revealing 4.6 million usernames and phone numbers. The ripples will be significant. For instance, someone can view and change your unread messages as well as those sent, and replace your images. Imagine the mischief, and serious problems that can cause.
What’s worse? The discoverers supposedly offered to help fix the problem by applying for the “Software Developer” position and never received an answer, he/they (GibsonSec) say.
According to them, there was no data encryption (!).
According to Snapchat, it had implemented safeguards making an exploit "more difficult to do."
As for Skype? So far, no data leak, just a hack of their blog and facebook page. The official blog "Hacked by Syrian Electronic Army.. Stop Spying!" as well as Twitter posts, “"Stop Spying on People! via Syrian Electronic Army," as well as on Skype’s facebook page, "Don't use Microsoft emails (hotmail,outlook), They are monitoring your accounts and selling it to the governments," with the hashtag "#SEA."
Skype denied info compromise.
Snapchat has been running on a tiny crew and growing very rapidly. They apparently have little, if any cybersecurity.
Just to explain why those datasets are so important, a criminal with several data sets can use phone numbers to correlate user names to real names and other records, making it easier to assume real-world identities at banks, government agencies, employers and elsewhere.
Also, if you have a Skype or Snapchat account, watch out for phishing emails.
Here’s a good link to help you in detecting phishing emails: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-tips-for-spotting-a-phishing-email/?tag=nl.e101&s_cid=e101&ttag=e101&ftag=TRE684d531
To check to see if your username, data were published online, you can go here: http://lookup.gibsonsec.org/
It's a valid link at GibsonSec.
Sources:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/1/5262740/4-6-million-snapchat-phone-numbers-and-usernames-leaked
http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/1/5264540/skype-twitter-facebook-blog-accounts-hacked