The records are provided by Ryushi, a forum user Breached.vc, sold. However, an exact amount is not given. According to Bleeding computer the hacker demands around $200,000. The data records consist of user names, email addresses and telephone numbers. To prove that valid data is included, the information was published by approximately 1000 users. This unearths data from prominent figures such as Steve Wozniak, Brian Krebs and Donald Trump.
The data was probably captured some time ago. A vulnerability is said to have been responsible for this, so that hackers could access the Twitter servers. So far, however, the social media group has not officially commented on how the data sets leaked. It is also unclear whether it is actually information from 400 million different users. It is conceivable that the hacker has significantly less data from real users.
Penalties in the millions possible
Data leaks can bring companies heavy fines. The Facebook parent company Meta had to pay a fine of 265 million euros last month after the data of 533 million users became public. Therefore, the hacker offers the new Twitter boss Elon Musk to acquire the data sets exclusively. He jokes that the entrepreneur could launch a poll on Twitter if he can’t make up his mind. Of course, paying the ransom does not guarantee that data protection officers will not open a fine against the short message service anyway.
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