Hackers leaked data of 209.5 million Twitter users to the public

It became known that hackers stole the e-mail addresses of more than 200 million Twitter users and published them on an online forum. «The hack will unfortunately lead to a large number of cyberattacks, targeted phishing and doxing,» Alon Gal, co-founder of the Israeli cybersecurity monitoring company Hudson Rock, wrote on LinkedIn, «This is one of the biggest exploits I’ve seen.»

The expert notes that the leak of confidential information threatens the lives and safety of people who used the social network to criticize governments or influential people. Cybercriminals can also use email addresses to reset passwords and take control of accounts that are not protected by two-factor authentication.

«This database will be used by hackers, political hacktivists, and of course governments to do even more damage to our privacy,» Gal emphasized.

Twitter has not yet commented on the situation. It is also unclear what measures the platform has taken to expose the hackers and resolve the privacy breach.

At the end of December, Hudson Rock already published a warning for Twitter users — an unknown hacker sold personal data of 400 million accounts. According to security experts, the attacker got hold of email addresses and phone numbers of not only ordinary users but also Shark Tank host Kevin O’Leary and Ethereum developer Vitalik Buterin. The personal information of users is currently being sold on the black market. Hudson Rock specialists have confirmed that the Twitter user data put up for sale on the darknet is real.