Australia: The former Australian Prime Minister Mr. Scott Morrison looks to have been caught up in a leak of partial data on 400 million Twitter users, along with celebrities including the model Ms. Cara Delevingne, US politician Ms. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and pop singer Mr. Shawn Mendes.
A sample of data leaked by an alleged cybercriminal last week includes Mr. Morrison’s Twitter account. According to a cybersecurity company that issued a warning about the claim, media personality Mr. Piers Morgan, who also appeared in data samples revealed by the hacker, recently had his Twitter account hijacked.
The majority of Morgan’s Twitter content was deleted, but there are accusations that it contained insults and harsh remarks addressed against the late Queen and the British artist Mr. Ed Sheeran.
According to the statement, “Only Morrison’s official email address, which was already publicly accessible, was mentioned as being included in the hack, and his phone number was also not listed, which may limit any potential harm.”
The hacker offered data for sale “exclusively” to Twitter for $200,000 in order for the company to avoid paying EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) fines, as per the report.
Israeli cyber-intelligence firm Hudson Rock claimed to be among the first to detect the posting offering the data of 400 million Twitter users in a tweet on the “credible threat.” Nobody has so far independently confirmed the poster’s access to what they claim to have.