Twitter hacked, 200 million users’ email addresses exposed: Report

A co-founder of an Israeli cybersecurity monitoring company claimed that the reported breach of 200 million Twitter users’ email addresses would promote targeted phishing.

Hackers allegedly acquired the email addresses of more than 200 million Twitter users and uploaded them on a hacking forum online.

Prior to this, however, it was reported that at least 400 million email addresses and phone numbers had been stolen, while the identity and whereabouts of the hackers were still unknown.

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Alon Gal, co-founder of Israeli cybersecurity-monitoring company Hudson Rock, wrote on LinkedIn that the breach “will regrettably result in a lot of hacking, targeted phishing, and doxxing.” According to Reuters, he described it as “one of the most serious leaks I’ve seen.”

Even two weeks after the information that the account had been hacked was released, Twitter has not responded to the situation.

On December 24, The Gal made a post on social media. Since the microblogging platform’s response to the claim is still unknown, Twitter is thought to have taken a covert stance in the matter.

“Troy Hunt, creator of breach-notification site Have I Been Pwned, viewed the leaked data and said on Twitter that it seemed “pretty much what it’s been described as”, quoted as saying by the news agency Reuters.

Twitter was purchased for 44 billion dollars by billionaire Elon Musk in October of last year. Musk encouraged marketers to cooperate after the takeover. Musk claimed that he purchased Twitter because it was a pillar of civilization and will benefit humanity in a statement to advertisers.