Snapchat Recovering?? Yup, An Updation in App

After the numerous questions which arose on the security issues of Snapchat’s Find Friends and Bulk Registration apps, Snapchat says that changes will be made to both Snapchat’s apps and the service in order to prevent future leaks including being able to opt out of the Find Friends feature that uses phone numbers.

Snapchat says that it was notified of the possible security risk (publicly) in August and took some steps to correct it including limiting the speed at which its API could be queried. Which is what one of the most cringe-worthy security moves in recent memory, Snapchat responded late last month to claims of risk that outlined just how a hacker might be able to match usernames to phone numbers.

     Also See : Snapchat account compromised 

Snapchat assures that they will be releasing an updated version of the Snapchat application that will allow Snapchatters to opt out of appearing in Find Friends after they have verified their phone number. They said they are also improving rate limiting and other restrictions to address future attempts to abuse their service.

Notably, Snapchat’s public response to this hacking does not include an apology of any sort to its users who have had their user names or phone numbers publicly exposed. Perhaps it’s an effort to avoid an acceptance of guilt, but it still feels like all the effort is in vain.

The person(s) responsible for releasing the names and numbers informed that their motivation was to “raise the public awareness for the issue, and also put mob pressure on Snapchat to get this security loop fixed. It is acceptable that tech startups have limited resources but security and privacy should not be a secondary goal. Security equals to user experience.”

Snapchat has recently commented that it will add an opt-out to its apps which will allow people to choose not to appear in the Find Friends feature after they’ve used their phone number for verification purposes.

Snapchat says that they want to make sure that security experts can get a hold of them when they discover new ways to abuse their service so that they can respond quickly to address those concerns. The best way to let them know about security vulnerabilities is by emailing them: security@snapchat.com.

Let’s see whether Snapchat has really recovered from its security breach or is it just to cover up the issue so that the image of the company may not be shadowed.

Author: Iman Majeed                                 Source: Snapchatblog

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