Snapchat's CEO blames recent hack on its Find Friend tool Evan Spiegel was warned his Snapchat app had a security hole The firm responded by issuing a blog post stating it took privacy seriously A week later hackers targeted the app to prove the vulnerability still existed Some 4.6million Snapchat account details were leaked during the hack Spiegel blamed the hack on the 'abuse of the app's Find Friend tool' Snapchat's CEO Evan Spiegel has come out in defence of his firm following a serious security breach involving the app's Find Friend tool. In an interview with U.S-based Today, the 23-year-old admitted he was under the impression the company had done enough to resolve security issues with the app, but added: 'If you spend your time looking backwards, you're just going to kill yourself'. Security experts claim Spiegel was warned 'months ago' the app had a security hole, yet failed to respond effectively, which is being blamed for the leak of 4.6million user details on Wednesday. Snapchat's CEO Evan Spiegel, left, has come out in defence of his firm following a security breach involving the app's Find Friend tool, right. According to Spiegel, the tool was abused by hackers to obtain phone numbers In response, the firm has announced plans to release an updated version of the app that lets users opt out of the feature. The Find Friend tool was developed to help Snapchatters find their friends' usernames by using their mobile numbers. According to Spiegel, this tool was abused by 'someone to find usernames of people that weren't their friends'. He added that the person targeted had 4.6million friends in their address book, and the hackers used this to find phone numbers. Previous reports have claimed Spiegel was one of the users affected by the hack, and this recent statement adds weight to the rumours it may even been his friend's list that was compromised. However, this has not been confirmed. The tool is already optional, but the app update will make it possible for users to explicitly opt out of using the feature. Yet on New Year's Day, anonymous hackers released a database of numbers of phone numbers they had obtained from the app. Following the news of the hack, developers created online tools that let users check if their details had been compromised. One tool, called GS Lookup - Snapchat, let users enter their username before scanning the leaked list for a match. If the account features on the list, the person's corresponding phone number would be displayed. A second tool, called Snapcheck.org, let users enter either their username or phone number to check if their account details made the list.