Following news that Snapchat have been hacked with hackers posting a database containing 4.6 million names and phone numbers of Snapchat users on Tuesday night and in an unrelated incident the and Skype Twitter account was hacked , Tim 'TK' Keanini, CTO at Lancope writes:
These hacks were very different in that the Skype incident was the compromise of Skype’s social media presence and the Snapchat was Snapchat user information being disclosed.
Regarding the Skype incident
Keeping your social media accounts for your company safe and secure is not as easy as it sounds with larger organizations. Often times, it is an outsourced company that staff’s these Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest accounts and their security practices may not be up to industry standards. They often will not turn on the two-factor authentication because it assumes that a single user will be associated with the account and often times with these large online brands, there are multiple people who staff a single account and two-factor makes it almost impossible to manage.
Regarding the Snapchat incident
Add another 4.6 Million User accounts comprised to the growing total in the past 6 months and we have a real problem on our hands people. Just in the past month, it seems that the frequency of account comprises are so high that people are having to change our passwords on a weekly basis. This is not sustainable. How bad does it have to get before it starts getting better? The more users you have in your online system, the more attractive you are to the advanced threat. They will work all day and all night to penetrate your systems and in turn, you must work all day and all night to ensure that you defend your system. At some point, product managers of these systems will prioritize security related features over all the other features in the backlog and make it happen sooner than later. Until then, there will be many more stories like this and good luck having to change your password for an upward of 50+ accounts on a weekly basis.