“For those people, this is a very consequential breach,” said John Scott-Railton, a security researcher at The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. The breadth of the leaked data could allow malicious actors or repressive governments to connect anonymous Twitter handles with the real names or email addresses of their owners, potentially unmasking dissidents, journalists, activists or other at-risk users around the world, security researchers warn. The significant staff reductions could now add to concerns about the company’s ability to respond to security threats. Its communication team, along with roughly half of Twitter’s overall workforce, was gutted after billionaire Elon Musk completed his acquisition the company in late October. Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. CNN has not independently verified the records’ authenticity. Hunt did not immediately respond to a question from CNN asking whether the records would be added to his website,, which allows users to search hacked records to determine if they have been affected. The Washington Post earlier reported a forum listing promoting the data of 235 million accounts. Troy Hunt, a security researcher, said Thursday that his analysis of the data “found 211,524,284 unique email addresses” that had been leaked. With its advertising business in crisis, Twitter eases ban on political ads REUTERS/Carlos Barria Carlos Barria/Reuters Some reports suggested the data was collected in 2021 through a bug in Twitter’s systems, a flaw the company fixed in 2022 after a separate incident in July involving 5.4 million Twitter accounts alerted the company to the vulnerability.Ī view of the Twitter logo at its corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California, U.S. “Previously private data such as emails, handles, and creation date can be leveraged to build smarter and more sophisticated hacking, phishing and disinformation campaigns.” “Bad actors have won the jackpot,” said Rafi Mendelsohn, a spokesman for Cyabra, a social media analysis firm focused on identifying disinformation and inauthentic online behavior. The trove of leaked records also includes Twitter users’ names, account handles, follower numbers and the dates the accounts were created, according to forum listings reviewed by security researchers and shared with CNN. The apparent data leak could expose the real-life identities of anonymous Twitter users and make it easier for criminals to hijack Twitter accounts, the experts warned, or even victims’ accounts on other websites. Email addresses linked to more than 200 million Twitter profiles are currently circulating on underground hacker forums, security experts say.
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