Attention ALL Twitter users! I have some alarming news to share with you. It has recently come to light that emails of over 209 million Twitter users, like AOC, and every Twitter user, have been leaked online. This is a serious security breach that has the potential to impact a large portion of the Twitter community. It is crucial that you take steps to protect yourself and your personal information in the wake of this leak. In this post, I will provide you with all of the information you need to know about the leak and what you can do to safeguard your online security. So read on, and take action to protect yourself now.
Elon Musk buys Twitter & a leak is released not long after
It has been a little over 3 months since Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter for $44 Billion in October 2022. Since then, many people and advertisers alike have left the platform in protest. And in a message to advertisers following Elon’s takeover of Twitter, he emphasized his belief that Twitter is a cornerstone of civilization & that he purchased the platform in order to help humanity. However, the MASSIVE recent email leak raises concerns about the security of user information on the platform. It is essential that both Twitter AND users like us to take steps to ensure our data privacy & security online.
This major leak affecting the emails of over 209 million fellow Twitter users was first reported on forums that report breaches.
What happened? Unauthorized data scraping
Bad actors used an exploit in Twitter to get information on users via their API, simply by submitting email addresses or phone numbers, and seeing which user ID would come back (more in this Tweet). This is a typical unauthorized data scrape (leak), rather than an actual hack of online systems. This same type of leak was also seen with Facebook last year, and LinkedIn had a similar data scraping leak in the past.
The leak “will unfortunately lead to a lot of hacking, targeted phishing and doxxing,” Alon Gal, co-founder of cybersecurity-monitoring firm Hudson Rock. He called it “one of the most significant leaks I’ve seen,” as reported in Reuters.
I’m currently in the process of obtaining the leaked data to investigate if I am affected personally, and for research purposes. I will update this post shortly after to provide more detail.
What can I do about this? Take steps to boost your security online
This is a serious security breach that has the potential to impact a large portion of the Twitter community, and it is important for us to take steps to protect ourselves & our personal information online.
