Do you remember when Twitter seemed close to closing? Now, however, he is perpetually the center of attention. And no, not for the right reasons. On the one hand, in fact, we have the diatribe with Elon Musk, who backtracked after signing the agreement for the acquisition of the social network; on the other hand we now find hackers and security holes.
The latter seems to have allowed an attacker to steal data from 5.4 million accounts.
5.4 million hacked Twitter accounts
To expose the problem, now solved, was the micro-blogging social network. Twitter explained that the vulnerability allowed enter a phone number or email address and find out if there was an account associated with this data and, if so, which one.
A bug that appears to have allowed a hacker to steal data from 5.4 million accounts, data that the attacker attempted to sell online for $ 30,000.
Twitter did not confirm the number of compromised profiles, however, saying it would still notify the people involved, although it admitted that it could not trace all the accounts involved.
The flaw is the consequence of a code update carried out in June 2021 and was reported in January 2022 through the Bug Bounty Program, the program with which Twitter rewards those who report security concerns. The micro-blogging social network promptly corrected the bug but apparently someone had already managed to take advantage of it, as evidenced by the report published by Bleeping Computer.
And now?
At the moment, Twitter simply recommends enable two-factor authentication, which prevents others from accessing your account as a security code is required in addition to the classic password.
If you have any doubts or questions about the security of your profile, you can contact the Twitter data protection office by filling out this form.