230 Million Twitter Users’ Data Leaked
An anonymous user has leaked a database of more than 230 million Twitter users on a hacker forum.
The data, which was posted on Wednesday, contains the names and email addresses of politicians, journalists and bankers, among others.
Experts claim that this happened due to hackers finding out flaws in one of Twitter’s services for programmers, known as application programming interface, or API, in 2021, way before Musk’s ownership of the company.
They said that the incident occurred due to a glitch in the social media giant’s software which has since been fixed but the incident points to the need for tighter security measures.
This is not the first time the company has encountered a major data breach.
In September last year, former Twitter security chief Peiter “Mudge” Zatko described to lawmakers and regulators that the platform issuffering from outdated software and a reactive security policy.
In 2020, a 17-year old girl from Florida was accused of orchestrating a breach of high-profile Twitter accounts, including those of Joe Biden and Elon Musk.
The publication of the leaked data this week comes amid ongoing investigations of Twitter in the US and Europe, which could result in fines.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission is also currently probing a breach of 5.4 million Twitter users’ data.
The best bet for concerned users as of now is to change their passwords and not adding a publicly known phone number or email address to your Twitter account for those operating under a pseudonym.