Twitter hack: 200M users, including Vitalik Buterin, hacked, their info available for free

Big names and brands on Twitter, including Vitalik Buterin founder of Ethereum, came unwrapped in the last week of December 2022, when their confidential details, including email addresses, were stolen by a hacker.

AOC, Kevin O’Leary, the NBA, SpaceX, WHO, Sundar Pichai, Donald Trump Jr., and CBS Media are other notable names whose data was stolen. 

An unprotected rift on Twitter’s servers is responsible for the breach of 400 million Twitter users. Reports by investigators at Hudson Rock, a cybercrime intelligence company, confirm that the hacker is in possession of 200 million users’ confidential information. 

The report goes on to reveal that the 200 million profiles excludes any replicas of the 400 million profiles leaked.

On a hacking spree

The bad actor, currently unknown, is demanding $200,000 in order to return the stolen data, and has threatened to release the confidential information for free if his demands are not met.

The timelines for the ransom payment are unknown.

4 GB of hacked private data available to download, free

All the hijacked data was originally 63GB, but after eliminating duplicates from the data stolen in December 2022, and compacting the files, the data is now only 4GB.

It does not include phone numbers. 

However researchers caution that the stolen data can be used for baiting or dox campaigns.

In addition to his ransom demand, the hacker revealed that he had been collecting and analyzing files and newly created Twitter accounts from November to December 2021.

Keen Twitter users are demanding better security from the social media giant as they are putting activists and whistleblowers in danger.

The same rift on Twitter’s servers is responsible for the December 2022 breach, with the same rift guilty of another hack in July 2022.