Snapchat users warned after rise in blackmail with ‘private images’

SNAPCHAT users have been advised to update their security settings to stop hackers using private images to blackmail them.

Nottinghamshire Police Cyber Protect Officer Kirsty Jackson said: “We have seen a recent rise in Snapchat accounts being compromised to extract and share private images. Children and young adults in Nottingham have been the most targeted. In many cases, a friend has accessed the victim’s account – either by guessing the login information or because the victim has poor security. In other cases, the victim has logged into Snapchat on a friend’s device, which has then saved the login credentials.

“The friend has then gone on to find private images and videos in the account’s My Eyes Only feature, because the passcode was easy to guess. They’ve then gone on to threaten to share the images after falling out with the victim and deciding to bully them.”

The force’s cyber experts said they had also seen a rise in Snapchat accounts being hacked by organised cyber criminals for financial gain, with the criminals targeting those between people between 20 to 40 years old. These hackers have accessed victim’s images and threatened to leak them unless money is paid.

To help reduce the chances of this happening, Nottinghamshire Police has created guidance to help keep

Snapchat accounts secure. The guidance encourages people to use different passwords for each account, use stronger passwords using three random words, enable two-step verification and remove any outdated personal information.

Officers advised people to never share any image they consider to be private using social media.