Hackers stole the e-mail addresses of greater than 200 million Twitter customers and posted them on a web-based hacking discussion board, a safety researcher mentioned Wednesday.
The breach “will sadly result in a variety of hacking, focused phishing and doxxing,” Alon Gal, co-founder of Israeli cybersecurity-monitoring agency Hudson Rock, wrote on LinkedIn. He known as it “probably the most vital leaks I’ve seen.”
Twitter has not commented on the report, which Gal first posted about on social media on December 24, nor responded to inquiries concerning the breach since that date. It was not clear what motion, if any, Twitter has taken to analyze or remediate the difficulty.
Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the information on the discussion board was genuine and got here from Twitter. Screenshots of the hacker discussion board, the place the information appeared on Wednesday, have circulated on-line.
Troy Hunt, creator of breach-notification website Have I Been Pwned, seen the leaked knowledge and mentioned on Twitter that it appeared “just about what it has been described as.”
There have been no clues to the identification or location of the hacker or hackers behind the breach. It could have taken place as early as 2021, which was earlier than Elon Musk took over possession of the corporate final 12 months.
Claims concerning the dimension and scope of the breach initially diverse with early accounts in December saying 400 million electronic mail addresses and cellphone numbers had been stolen.
A serious breach at Twitter could curiosity regulators on either side of the Atlantic. The Knowledge Safety Fee in Eire, the place Twitter has its European headquarters, and the US Federal Commerce Fee have been monitoring the Elon Musk-owned firm for compliance with European knowledge safety guidelines and a US consent order respectively.
Messages left with the 2 regulators weren’t instantly returned on Thursday.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
