Leak exposes emails of 200 million Twitter users

with a database More than 200 million email addresses of its users twitter experienced a leak As reported in the last hours BleepingComputer, the list disclosed on a hacker forum also includes usernames and real names, the dates the profiles were created, and the corresponding follower counts. Fortunately, account passwords were not affected. However, the incident still poses a serious security risk to those affected.

It would be helpful if the information was disclosed. does not respond to a recent attack. Researchers were able to trace the source of the leak back to 2021, when malicious actors were able to exploit a vulnerability in the Twitter API. Thanks to this, they were able to enter their phone numbers and email addresses in batches to check if they were associated with accounts on the social network. and with bug they were able to extract the details of the profiles in question in another API.

Twitter fixed the vulnerability in January 2022, but didn’t make it public until August. In the following months, several batches of user data began to appear on the web. However, the case became notorious until last November, when a hacker claimed to have a database of 400 million accounts created on the platform.

According to the analysis by BleepingComputer, everything shows that the 200 million email address list is the same as it appeared at the end of last year. with that difference cleared to remove data that appears to be duplicate. Although it is possible to show that the list continues to contain repeated information.

Is my email address part of the Twitter leak?

The experts who analyzed the case concluded that it all depends on whether the email address you used on Twitter was part of a previous leak. If received by your email scrapers from other websites, you are more likely to be found in the disclosed database.

Luckily, there is a way to check if your email is part of this Twitter leak. Website creator Troy Hunt have i been trickedadded more than 200 million email addresses to its popular platform. So, when you get into yours, you will be able to find out if it is really in the hands of hackers.. However, you will also be notified of any previous leaks involving your email.

Actually, Hunt himself Indian That 98% of emails in the database on Twitter were leaked more than once.

As for what to do if your email address is part of the Twitter leak, you have a few options. The first and most logical is to change the email associated with your account on the social network. You can do this at: Settings & privacy > Your Account > Account info > Email. There you can update your address with a different address.

If you prefer a more drastic solution to deal with the leak, you can create a new email account and another twitter profile. While this also depends on whether you want to lose your existing followers, it also depends on the amount you have. Whichever option you choose, remember to use a strong password and turn on two-step verification or two-factor authentication.

This is also important pay special attention to the emails you receive in your mailbox. The data contained in the Twitter leak can be used in fraud attempts, identity fraud or doxeo.