235 Million Twitter Accounts Hacked

by Mindy Cohn

Email addresses from 235 million Twitter accounts have been shared on an underground hacking forum exposing accounts and endangering users while ranking among the most significant security breaches anywhere.

Those who use Twitter to criticize governments or powerful groups, or individuals could be the most at risk, as anonymous Twitter handles might more easily be linked with the real names of newly endangered owners.

The leaked email addresses could expose Twitter users' real identities, which could lead to physical danger, extortion, and the danger of a hacker using the email address to attempt to reset passwords or take control of the Twitter accounts or even accounts on other websites.  

Users with large followings might be more susceptible to extortion due to the leak.

Experts say the records were most likely lifted in late 2021 when a flaw was discovered that allowed anyone with an email address or phone number to find any account that had shared that information with Twitter. 

Twitter learned of the problem in January of last year when it was reported to them through a reward program offered for reporting on Twitter system bugs. By the time the company learned of it, the vulnerability was seven months old, as it had been part of an update made at that time.

It wasn't until July that Twitter was made aware for the first time since that breach of hackers selling Twitter account handles with their emails and phone numbers for 5.4 million accounts.

It is presumed that the 235 million accounts available now were compiled in the same way during those seven months. It is also speculated that the information had been offered for private sale and then circulated for a while before being made public.

One suggestion to protect your account at this point is to set up a two-point verification process. Another suggestion is to make sure not to use the same passwords for different accounts.

Photo Credit: Flickr