Twitter security hole exposes 5.5 million Twitter accounts

A Twitter security vulnerability has exposed the identities of millions of accounts. The email addresses and phone numbers used by these users to access their accounts, are now in the hands of those who carried out the attack.

Hackers have taken advantage of a vulnerability known to the company since last January. There are 5,485,636 users whose identity is known to an intruder, including companies, celebrities, organizations and private citizens. The social network has said it is investigating the origin and scope of the case, but has not offered any further information at this time.

A known hole

The company did not stand still once the security hole was detected. It applied a "patch" to keep the data safe, but it was not enough.

What's more, according to a Bleepingcomputer insider, a hacker told him that he could identify 5.4 million users as the security hole was still open on Twitter.

Wrestling with Elon Musk

This news comes in the midst of a court case with entrepreneur Elon Musk. The creator of PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX previously showed his interest in buying the microblogging network. The businessman demanded that the social network provide him with the relevant data to show how many fake accounts were circulating on it. Twitter offered him some data, however, Musk didn't buy it, and later retracted his offer.

Now it is Twitter that is taking Elon Musk to court for breaching an acquisition agreement without good reason. Twitter has been highly critical of Musk's statement of facts and legal arguments. In addition, the South African businessman has made it clear that it will be the courts that will require the network to provide the real details of fake accounts and not him.