Snapchat the latest victim of a data breach

Thankfully Team Snapchat have advised that this was an isolated incident that was swiftly resolved – and perhaps there will be a huge sigh of relief shared across the globe when we tell you that it was not information about Snapchat users that was breached…

According to social media heavyweights Snapchat, an employee fell for a phishing scam that ended up in payroll information for employees being leaked last month. The email purported to come from the company’s Chief Executive Officer, and it requested payroll information for a number of employees.

Unfortunately the employee hadn’t realised it was a scam, and payroll information for several current and former employers was released externally.

This has been called an ‘isolated incident’ by Snapchat and they say it has been reported to the FBI for investigation. In response to the leak, Snapchat has confirmed that it will:

Snapchat have made clear in their release that no user information was ever compromised, and their systems were not ‘hacked’ as this was an incident where an employee inadvertently disclosed personal employee information through failing for a phishing scam.

Phishing Scams – a growing problem

Over 100 billion emails are sent each day across the globe. That is one staggering statistic!

Amongst this vast wealth of cyber traffic are malicious emails aimed at stealing information through phishing scams and hacks. I’ve lost count of how many emails I see in my junk box asking me to click links for ‘invoices’ or click buttons to access my ‘account’ online. Some scams can be hard to spot and the hackers are finding new ways of tricking people all of the time.

Phishing scams are certainly one of the ones to look out for. One small email can have the power to hack millions of bits of information, which is extremely worrying!

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