O2 in MMS photo controversy

Pics can be found using just a Google search

21 July 2008 10:52 GMT / By Katie Scott

O2 customers are none too happy after it was revealed that photos sent by MMS can be found using just a simple Google search.

David Cawley on the MailChannels Anti-Spam Blog revealed the flaw, which has pushed O2 into a privacy storm.

The problem comes about when MMS messages are sent to people who don't own a compatible phone - such as the new iPhone 3G.

They get sent a URL from which they can view the O2 customer's image.

But Cawley has found that these images can be accessed using a simple InURL search on Google.

"As these web pages were wide open to the internet, not requiring any authentication a very small handful were indexed by Google", he writes.

"I was able to craft a Google search that results in some matches to show an example of how this is an insecure method of hosting", he adds.

The problem was highlighted on dozens of blogs, news websites and even O2 messageboards over the weekend.

O2 eventually decided to take the nuclear option and take down the website viewing service.

Now anyone attempting to view the leaked images is met with an Apache server error message.