Tech: Hacker claims to have leaked over 32 million Twitter passwords

Twitter hacked

A hacker claims to have obtained access of over 379 million accounts on social media website Twitter.

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The leak was reported by a security firm called LeakedSource on their official Twitter page. Since Twitter's official active user base figure of 310 million it is thought that disabled and inactive accounts have also been included.

The company further claims that the leaked cache in fact contains over 32 million user credentials after the removal of duplicates. Malware is believed to be used for stealing credential details from browsers. Usernames, email addresses, and plain-text passwords are thought to be part of the leaked list.

The hacker, who goes by name Tessa88 reportedly plans to sell them for 10 Bitcoins.

Twitter has refused reports of the information being obtained due to a data breach. An official spokesperson told reporters that the firm is, "confident that usernames and credentials were not obtained by a data breach, [and that] systems have not been breached."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Pic/AFP

Earlier this month, Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg's official Twitter and Pinterest were compromised. The hacker group 'OurMine Team' behind the hacking claimed that it was possible due to the LinkedIn password dump that happened a few weeks ago. Zuckerberg has not tweeted since 2012. The hacker group's Twitter account has since been suspended, and Zuckerberg's Pinterest page was restored. (Read more)

Chelsea Handler. Pic courtesy/ Chelsea Handler's Twitter account

A few days later, actress-comedienne Chelsea Handler's Twitter account fell prey to hackers, who seized and took over the comedian's Twitter account and posted some random tweets. (Read more)

Katy Perry

Singer Katy Perry's Twitter account was hacked in January this year, with hackers posted some nasty and vulgar tweets, including one referring to her feud with fellow singer Taylor Swift. (Read more)

Both Twitter and rival social media site Facebook were victims of a sudden denial-of-service attack on August 6, 2009, which caused the Twitter website to go offline for several hours. It was later confirmed that the attacks were directed at one pro-Georgian user around the anniversary of the 2008 South Ossetia War, rather than the sites themselves.

An Iranian hacker group named Iranian Cyber Army replaced Twitter's welcoming screen with an image of a green flag and the caption "This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army" for nearly an hour on December 17, 2009. No connection between the hackers and Iran has been established.