Hacker in Possession of Over 400M Twitter User Data

There seems to have been a breach on Twitter and its users’ data has been compromised. Hudson Rock, a cybercrime intelligence company has confirmed a credible threat that says data including private emails and linked telephone numbers that belong to about 400 million Twitter users is being sold by an entity in the black market. 

Notably, part of the affected account is that of Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Canadian businessman and Shark tank host Kevin O’Leary, and American billionaire Mark Cuban. From the Hudson Rock report, it appears this information was hijacked earlier this year. At the time, there was a vulnerability on the platform which the hacker was able to leverage.

“The private database contains devastating amounts of information including emails and phone numbers of high profile users such as AOC, Kevin O’Leary, Vitalik Buterin & more,” Hudson Rock said confirming that “In the post, the threat actor claims the data was obtained in early 2022 due to a vulnerability in Twitter, as well as attempting to extort Elon Musk to buy the data or face GDPR lawsuits.”

Is The Twitter Data Breach Real?

There has been no verification as to the hacker’s claim especially after considering the number of affected accounts although an “independent verification of the data itself appears to be legitimate.” The matter seems to be attracting the attention of more security entities as DeFiYield, a cross-chain asset management protocol and Web3.0 security firm has also intervened.

DeFiYield got a sample of 1,000 accounts from the hacker and after much investigation, the security firm corroborated the bad actors’ claim.

It verified that the data is real. As it stands, the hackers are vigorously waiting for potential buyers on Telegram. Many users are finding it hard to believe that such a huge breach could be carried out, especially as the hack covers up to 90% of the entire active monthly users on the Twitter app.

The new owner of the platform Elon Musk has been asked to pay a ransom of $276 million to avoid the sales and publication of the users’ private details. Musk may likely face a fine from the General Data Protection Regulation agency.