New Delhi: Micro-blogging platform and social networking site Twitter has admitted that the privacy of accounts of several users was at risk last year when a malicious person took advantage of a flaw in its software. was.
Information of 5.4 million users was leaked
However, Twitter has not confirmed the report that due to this technical flaw, data related to about 5.4 million users around the world have been offered for sale online. But it has admitted that its users were affected by this burglary.
Jeff Kosef, a data security expert at the American Naval Academy, said in his tweet on this, “This situation is very bad for many people using pseudonymous Twitter accounts.”
Twitter said in a statement on Friday that a flaw in its software allowed a person to determine which existing Twitter account a particular phone number or e-mail is associated with when logging in. Due to this, account holders can be easily disclosed.
Number of leaked accounts not disclosed
Twitter, however, claimed not to be aware of the number of account holders affected by the incident, saying that none of the passwords were revealed. A Twitter spokesperson said, “We can confirm that this had a global impact. But we cannot tell clearly about the exact number of people affected or their location.
Restore Privacy claims to have sold the details
Restore Privacy, a digital privacy advocacy group said in a report released last month that the details gathered from the software glitch were being sold on a popular hacking platform for $30,000.
Twitter claims – the flaw was fixed immediately
In January last, a security researcher pointed to this flaw in Twitter’s software. For this, he was also given a reward of $ 5,000. Later, Twitter said that this flaw, which occurred during the June 2021 software update, was immediately corrected. Twitter said, “We are releasing this information because we cannot verify every account that is affected. Especially we have special attention to people operating Twitter accounts under pseudonyms because they can be targeted by the government and other parties.
Twitter expressed regret
Twitter has advised users to keep their identities hidden. Along with this, he has also urged people not to give publicly known phone numbers or email address details on his Twitter account. Twitter said, “If you run a pseudonymous Twitter account, we understand the risks involved in such an incident. We are deeply sorry for this incident to happen.”
