LONDON: A security researcher reported on Wednesday that hackers posted the email addresses of more than 200 million Twitter users on an online hacking forum with the stolen information.
Alon Gal, the co-founder of the Israeli cybersecurity monitoring company Hudson Rock, wrote on LinkedIn that the breach “will, unfortunately, lead to a lot of hacking, targeted phishing, and doing.” “One of the most significant leaks I’ve seen,” he said.
Since Gal posted about the report on social media on December 24, neither has Twitter commented on it nor responded to inquiries regarding the breach. Twitter did not specify what steps it had taken to investigate or resolve the issue.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm that Twitter provided the forum’s data. On Wednesday, screenshots of the hacker forum that contained the data were posted online.
Have I Been Pwned founder Troy Hunt viewed the leaked data and commented on Twitter that it appeared to be “pretty much what it’s been described as?”
There were no indications as to the identity of the hacker or hacker groups responsible for the breach or their location. It may have occurred as early as 2021, prior to Elon Musk’s acquisition of the business last year.
Initial claims regarding the size and scope of the breach varied, with early accounts in December claiming that 400 million phone numbers and email addresses were stolen.
Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic may be interested in a major Twitter security breach. The Elon Musk-owned company has been under surveillance by the Data Protection Commission in Ireland, where Twitter has its European headquarters, and the Federal Trade Commission in the United States, respectively, for compliance with European data protection regulations and a consent order from the United States.
On Thursday, messages left with the two regulators did not receive a response right away.
Source: Reuters
