DATA BREACH: Researcher claims he got data of 17m people on Twitter via their phone numbers

A researcher has claimed that he matched 17 million phone numbers to user accounts – including high-profile politicians and officials — by exploiting a vulnerability in Twitter’s Android app.

Security researcher Ibrahim Balic found that it was possible to upload entire lists of generated phone numbers through Twitter’s contacts upload feature, reports TechCrunch.

“If you upload your phone number, it fetches user data in return,” Balic who had created a WhatsApp group to alert users was quoted as saying.

According to him, he generated more than two billion phone numbers, one after the other, then randomized the numbers, and uploaded them to Twitter through the Android app.

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However, it’s not yet confirmed if Balic’s efforts are related to a Twitter statement last week which admitted a malicious code was inserted into its app by a bad actor that could have compromised several Android users’ around the globe.

Twitter which has faced several vulnerabilities recently on its platform in a statement by its spokesperson said that the company takes these reports seriously and are actively investigating to ensure the bug can’t be exploited again.

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