Twitter Data Breach: Hack Put 200 Million Users' Private Info Up For Grabs

re: security

Apropos How to Create a Password System You Can Live With and Why Passkeys Will Be Simpler and More Secure Than Passwords.

Twitter Data Breach: Hack Put 200 Million Users' Private Info Up For Grabs

2023-01-06

The hacker had demanded $200,000 to return the breached data back in December but warned that if their conditions are not fulfilled, they will release the data for free.

200 million Twitter users’ private information, including their email addresses, was put for sale after a breach exposed 400 million users’ private information in the last week of December 2022.

The hacker behind the December breach had earlier demanded $200,000 from Twitter in a bid to return the stolen data and warned if the demand is not fulfilled, the data will be released for free. The latest set of data posted on the hacker forum has been traced back to the same breach from December 2022.

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Researchers at Privacy Affairs confirmed that the leaked data set on the hacker forum is the same from December. The 200 million number, in this case, resulted from the removal of duplicates. The released data set doesn’t contain phone numbers. The researchers warned that these data sets could be used to initiate social engineering or “doxing” campaigns.

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MPG: “including their email addresses” solving half of the difficulty in hacking user accounts at web sites all over the internet. Yet so many web sites today demand you use an email address for your login—a terrible security design.