Massive X (Twitter) data leak is believed to be by an insider – 400GB of data containing information on 2.873 billion users
By ForGeeks According to a report by Hackread, Platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has found itself at the center of a scandal after an attacker using the alias “ThinkingOne” posted profile data of more than 2.8 billion users on Breach forums. The hacker claims the information was stolen from a former employee of the company amid mass layoffs at the US social network.
The leaked data from ThinkingOne includes not only account creation dates, user IDs and screen names, but also profile descriptions, URLs, location and time zone settings, display names and number of followers both currently and four years ago. The leak also includes tweet counts and timestamps of recent tweets, total number of friends, lists and favorites, recent sources of tweets, and status settings.
The leak also includes the number of tweets and timestamps of recent posts, total number of friends, lists and favorites, recent sources of tweets, and status settings.
The data from the 2023 hack – users’ email addresses – was also included. That data became part of the new information package after X refused to acknowledge the hack. The company previously believed that the incident two years ago only affected publicly available information. Given that the number of affected users is nearly ten times the total number of X users as of January of this year, it’s conceivable that the leaked data could have been made up of information from earlier incidents.
Some of the data leaked could have been made up of information from earlier incidents.
The full impact of the leak has yet to be determined. If sensitive data such as phone numbers or additional personal information was included (details, ThinkingOne said, have not been confirmed), the implications could be severe, increasing the risks of identity theft, phishing, and targeted attacks.
