Alon Gal - Afrikan Heroes

200 Million e-mail Addresses Leaked in Latest Twitter Hack

January 9, 2023

Hackers stole the e-mail addresses of more than 200 million Twitter users and posted them on an online hacking forum, a security researcher said on Wednesday.

The breach “will unfortunately lead to a lot of hacking, targeted phishing and doxxing”, Alon Gal, co-founder of Israeli cybersecurity monitoring firm Hudson Rock, wrote on LinkedIn. He called it “one of the most significant leaks I’ve seen”.

Twitter has not commented on the report, which Gal first posted about on social media on 24 December, nor responded to inquiries about the breach since that date. It was not clear what action, if any, Twitter has taken to investigate or remediate the issue.

A major breach at Twitter may interest regulators on both sides of the Atlantic

It could not independently be verified the data on the forum was authentic and came from Twitter. Screenshots of the hacker forum, where the data appeared on Wednesday, have circulated online.

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”.

There were no clues to the identity or location of the hacker or hackers behind the breach. It may have taken place as early as 2021, which was before Elon Musk took ownership of the company last year.

Claims about the size and scope of the breach initially varied, with early accounts in December saying 400 million e-mail addresses and phone numbers were stolen.

A major breach at Twitter may interest regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. The Data Protection Commission in Ireland, where Twitter has its European headquarters, and the US Federal Trade Commission have been monitoring the Elon Musk-owned company for compliance with European data protection rules and a US consent order respectively.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Massive Leak Throws Up Data Of 85 Million Facebook Users In Egypt, Tunisia and Cameroon

April 7, 2021

Alon Gal, technical director of cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock

A database of 533 million Facebook users, including 44 million in Egypt, 39 million in Tunisia and 1,997,658 in Cameroon, has been circulating on the Internet since April 3. According to Alon Gal, technical director of cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock, which revealed the leak, 106 countries are affected by the hack. All 533,000,000 Facebook data records were just leaked for free.

This means that if you have a Facebook account, it is extremely likely the phone number used for the account was leaked.

All 533,000,000 Facebook records were just leaked for free.

This means that if you have a Facebook account, it is extremely likely the phone number used for the account was leaked.

I have yet to see Facebook acknowledging this absolute negligence of your data. https://t.co/ysGCPZm5U3 pic.twitter.com/nM0Fu4GDY8
— Alon Gal (Under the Breach) (@UnderTheBreach) April 3, 2021

Data in circulation includes full name, phone number, Facebook ID, last location, birthday, email address, account creation date, biography, relationship status .

This information, put together in a database, is the equivalent of a huge directory. Currently freely available on the Net, they can be used by hackers. They can be used to carry out targeted attacks such as phishing, SMS or email. The Internet users concerned must therefore redouble their vigilance.

But how do you know if you are concerned?

Troy Hunt, the creator of the HaveIBeenPwned.com site, recovered the entire database. It is therefore possible from this site to know if his email or phone number is there. To search, enter the phone number in international format, that is, with the area code.

If this leak is not the first in the history of the social network, t is however the largest with 419 million people hacked in September 2019 and 267 million in December of the same year.

The countries most affected by this piracy are Egypt (44 million users), Tunisia (39 million) and Italy (35 million).

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer

Facebook data Egypt Tunisia Cameroon Facebook data Egypt Tunisia Cameroon