400 Million Twitter Users’ Data For Sale on Black Market

It was reported on December 24th, 400 million Twitter users’ data is up for sale on the black market, including their private emails and linked phone numbers. A cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock tweeted, this is a real and credible threat. The private database contains devastating messages, including emails and phone numbers of high-profile users such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kevin O’Leary, Vitalik Buterin, and others. The sellers claimed they obtained the data in 2022 due to a Twitter data breach and also attempted to blackmail Musk into buying the data or facing a GDPR lawsuit. Several online security companies have verified the data from a sample of 1,000 accounts provided by the hackers and confirmed that it is all genuine.

The hackers called on Musk to pay $276 million for the data to avoid it being sold and otherwise facing fines from the General Data Protection Regulation agency. If Musk pays the fee, they will delete the data to prevent breaches that pose risks to celebrities and politicians, including phishing and digital currency scams.

It is common for individuals’ data on social media to be leaked and sold. The data is either sold by hackers or by the social media themselves. Users’ information is not protected because many social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter almost all profit from selling users’ data to advertisers.