Over 200 million Twitter email addresses leaked: Report

The leaked records also include Twitter users’ names, account handles, follower numbers and the dates the accounts were created. Pic/AFP

More than 200 million email addresses of Twitter users were hacked and posted on an online forum, according to a security researcher, reported CNN. The apparent data leak could expose the real-life identities of anonymous Twitter users and make it easier for criminals to hijack Twitter accounts, the experts warned, or even victims' accounts on other websites.

"Bad actors have won the jackpot," said Rafi Mendelsohn, a spokesman for Cyabra, a social media analysis firm focused on identifying disinformation and inauthentic
online behaviour. "Previously private data such as emails, handles, and creation date can be leveraged to build smarter and more sophisticated hacking, phishing and disinformation campaigns," added Mendelsohn.

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The leaked records also include Twitter users' names, account handles, follower numbers and the dates the accounts were created, according to forum listings reviewed by security researchers and shared with CNN. Troy Hunt, a security researcher, said Thursday that his analysis of the data "found 211,524,284 unique email addresses" that had been leaked. The Washington Post earlier reported a forum listing promoting the data of 235 million accounts. Twitter didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

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