edited by: Shaurya Sharma
Last Update: January 06, 2023, 09:38 AM IST
While some users are worried about their safety, others have rubbished the leak. (Image: Reuters)
Hackers obtained and shared the email addresses of more than 200 million Twitter users, potentially leading to an increase in cyberattacks. CEO Elon Musk has yet to address the issue, and Twitter users are voicing their concern.
The email addresses of more than 200 million Twitter users were obtained by hackers and uploaded to a hacking site, a security researcher reported on Wednesday.
This is a worrying development for users whose personal information has been exposed, as they may now be at a higher risk of being targeted by cybercriminals.
Hudson Rock co-founder Alon Gal described it as “one of the most significant leaks”, claiming that it would lead to an increase in cyber-attacks such as hacking, phishing and doxing.
Twitter database leaks for free with 235,000,000 records. The database contains 235,000,000 unique records of Twitter users and their email addresses and will unfortunately lead to a lot of hacking, targeted phishing and doxing.
This is one of the most important leaks ever. pic.twitter.com/kxRY605qMZ
— Hudson Rock (@RockHudsonRock) January 4, 2023
Many users took to Twitter to express their opinion on the matter. One Twitter user said, “Why would they give it away for free? Couldn’t they easily sell it to people? Or would that be too traceable? Or isn’t this data worth a lot of money?”
Another user expressed concern and wanted to know “How do I check whether my account is listed in this leak or not? without downloading the leaked files?”
A News18 staffer checked his own email address on “Have I Been Pwned”, a website that helps individuals determine whether their personal information has been compromised in the data breach. The website showed the employee’s Twitter data was compromised in a leak “as early as 2023.”
But the data “was obtained in 2021 by abusing an API that enables email addresses to be resolved to Twitter profiles. The results were then made into a set of data consisting of email addresses along with public Twitter profile information including name, username and number of followers.
Troy Hunt, producer of ‘Have I Been Pwned’, investigated the leaked data and confirmed on Twitter that it appears to be as described.
Twitter users have also reached out to the CEO Elon Musk to confirm the authenticity of the data leak, but they are yet to address the issue.
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