Recently, a major social media site, Snapchat, was hacked. The leak resulted in a database of users’ account information (usernames and phone numbers).

Snapchat is a social media app that allows users to send temporary pictures or videos (that can only be viewed once) to other users. The app is especially popular among students at EHS.

“It’s a fun way to communicate with my friends,” sophomore Tristin Lieberman said. “I can send awkward, funny pictures to my friends without worrying about them using those pictures to embarrass me later.”

The leak came just days after computer security company Gibson Security warned of Snapchat’s vulnerability to a cyber attack. According to Gibson Security, the Snapchat team had taken far too long to address some very serious issues with the coding of the software, and had left the application wide open to exploits that could compromise user information.

Less than a week after that interview, a database with over 4.2 million users’ account information is just a click away.

Lieberman supports the database. “The hacker has not revealed all the digits of each person’s phone number and has demonstrated that Snapchat is not secure,” Lieberman said.

Senior Joe Strohmeyer is not happy with Snapchat. “Snapchat was too reluctant to fix the exploit until they knew it was too late and companies that we trust with our information should be more careful when dealing with it.”

Strohmeyer disagrees with Lieberman. “The database needs to be shut down before it the uncensored records are released,” Strohmeyer said. “The hacker proved their point, now why keep the database up?”