Snapchat 'hacked': Thousands of images and videos stolen

Messaging app Snapchat has distanced itself from a major hack that has seen at least 100,000 photographs and videos leaked online.

According to Business Insider, a vast database of Snapchat photos and videos has been covertly collected by hackers over several years.

In their report, Business Insider say that a third-party app that allows users to save photos before they are deleted by Snapchat has been stealing thousands of photos and videos sent through it for years.

They also claim that users of online photo trading chatrooms and notorious websites like 4chan are creating searchable databases allowing people to search the captured images by Snapchat username.

Users of these sites are already calling the hack 'The Snappening' in reference to the recent hack which saw several celebrities have intimate photographs stolen from their devices.

There are fears that many of the images will show children given that around half of Snapchat users are aged between 13 and 17.

Business Insider also reports that some 4Chan users say the collection of stolen photos contains indecent images of young teenagers who innocently believed they would be deleted immediately after viewing.

In a statement to ITV News, Snapchat confirmed the stolen pictures came from third party website and insisted that their own servers had not been breached by hackers.

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