Twitter hacked! Private data of 200 mn users leaked online, report says

Twitter has been hacked. Data of over 200 million Twitter users was stolen and posted online on a hacker forum. The stolen data includes email addresses of the users used to set up the account.

While Twitter has not responded to the reports yet, Alon Gal- co-founder of Israeli cybersecurity-monitoring firm Hudson Rock, believes that this breach will lead to several other cyber-crimes like hacking, doxxing and targeted phishing. He called it “one of the most significant leaks” that he’s ever seen.

Gal on his LinkedIn profile wrote that hackers will use these new leaked data to “target crypto twitter accounts, hack into high profile accounts, political accounts or “OG” accounts with good usernames.” He adds that these data can also be used by agencies around the world harming the privacy of users.

Twitter has not responded to Gal’s first Twitter hack finding which he posted on LinkedIn on December 24. Screenshots of the hacker forum, where the data was posted, have surfaced online.

Troy Hunt, creator of breach-notification site Have I Been Pwned, viewed the leaked data and said on Twitter that it seemed “pretty much what it’s been described as.”

There were no clues to the identity or location of the hacker or hackers behind the breach. It may have taken place as early as 2021, which was before Elon Musk took over ownership of the company last year.

Claims about the size and scope of the breach initially varied with early accounts in December saying 400 million email addresses and phone numbers were stolen.

A major breach at Twitter may interest regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. The Data Protection Commission in Ireland, where Twitter has its European headquarters, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission have been monitoring the Elon Musk-owned company for compliance with European data protection rules and a U.S. consent order respectively.

Messages left with the two regulators were not immediately returned on Thursday.