'The Snappening' Really Happened: 100,000 Snapchat Photos and Videos Leak Online Because the 'The Fappening' wasn't horrifying enough, enter 'The Snappening,' reason number 1,729 not to snap selfies in the buff.

By Kim Lachance Shandrow

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

"The Snappening" is upon us. Sorry, kids, it wasn't just a hoax after all. And the massive hack is just as terrible, horrible, no good and very bad as cyber thugs warned it would be.

As initially confirmed by The Daily Beast, hackers did indeed release a glut of explicit Snapchat images and videos over the weekend. Cyberthieves stole approximately 90,000 photos and 9,000 videos from the ephemeral photo mobile messaging app (and, let's be real, the known "sexting" tool). They pulled the cyber burglary off by breaching a third-party Snapchat client called SnapSaved.

Much of the leaked content, about 13 gigabytes of stolen material mainly from European Snapchatters, is reportedly tantamount to child pornography, as around half of Snapchat's users are between the ages of 13 and 17.

Related: Ads on Snapchat Are Coming

Earlier this year, on New Year's Day, anonymous hackers leaked the names and phone numbers of 4.6 million Snapchat users.

Snapchat says it's not responsible for this latest leak, which The Daily Beast today dubbed "the biggest leak of personal photos ever." The Pacific Palisades, Calif.-based startup maintains that "no Snaps" were snagged from its servers and that it routinely warns users against using third-party apps that could jeopardize their privacy.

Related: Snapchat Valuation Skyrockets to $10 Billion Following New Funding

"We can confirm that Snapchat's servers were never breached and were not the source of these leaks," Snapchat said in a statement. "Snapchatters were victimized by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our Terms of Use precisely because they compromise our users' security."

Meanwhile, in equally depressing hacking developments, news broke this weekend that Dairy Queen and Kmart customer payment systems were breached in separate incidents. Basically, nothing digital is sacred -- or safe -- anymore.

Related: Why the Naked Celeb Photo iCloud Hack Should Make You Nervous

Kim Lachance Shandrow

Former West Coast Editor

Kim Lachance Shandrow is the former West Coast editor at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was a commerce columnist at Los Angeles CityBeat, a news producer at MSNBC and KNBC in Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times. She has also written for Government Technology magazine, LA Yoga magazine, the Lowell Sun newspaper, HealthCentral.com, PsychCentral.com and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Coop. Follow her on Twitter at @Lashandrow. You can also follow her on Facebook here

Editor's Pick

Related Topics

Business News

'It's Getting Worse By the Week': Kevin O'Leary Issues Grave Warning About Commercial Real Estate Industry

The "Shark Tank" star spoke to impending devaluation of stocks in the industry on FOX Business' "Varney & Co."

Growing a Business

Running a Profitable Restaurant Is Not Easy. But Coach Chip Klose Has a Plan for You.

Author and restaurant coach Chip Klose discusses his method for making 20% profit in the restaurant business.

Data & Recovery

Invest in This IT Education Bundle While it's Only $50

Train your team on IT and cybersecurity fundamentals with this limited-time deal

Business News

Walgreens' Battle Over High-Tech Cooler Doors Heats Up

The lawsuit, initially filed in June, is seeking $200 million in damages.

Management

5 Essential Tips on How to Be a Great Manager

Here are five key tips that will help you become an effective and successful manager.

Business News

These Great-Grandparents Booked 51 Back-to-Back Cruises Because It's 'Cheaper Than a Retirement Home'

Retirees Marty and Jess Ansen hopped on a cruise ship nearly two years ago and never left.