Twitter (X) Hit by Data Leak of 2.8B Users – Allegedly an Insider Job

Summary

A data leak involving a whopping 2.87 billion Twitter (X) users has surfaced on the infamous Breach Forums. According to a post by a user named ThinkingOne, the leak is the result of a disgruntled X employee who allegedly stole the data during a period of mass layoffs. If true, this would be the largest social media data breach in history, but surprisingly, neither X nor the broader public appears to be aware of it. What We Know About the Breach The original post by ThinkingOne states that the data, around 400GB worth, was likely exfiltrated during messy layoffs at X. The poster claims that they tried contacting X through multiple methods but received no response. Frustrated with the lack of acknowledgment from X and the general public, they took matters into their own hands and decided to merge the newly leaked data with another infamous breach from January 2023. Screenshot from Breach Forums shows what ThinkingOne has posted about the alleged breach (Credit: Waqas/Hackread.com) The 2023 Breach Recap To understand the full scope of what was leaked, looking at the 2023 X data breach that affected around 209 million users is important. That breach exposed: Display names and usernames (handles) Followers count and account creation dates At the time, X downplayed the leak, stating that it consisted of publicly available data. Despite the massive exposure of email addresses, they insisted that no sensitive or private information was involved. However, security experts warned that the combination of emails and public data could enable phishing and identity theft on a large scale. What’s Inside the Alleged 2025 Breach? The 2025 breach, however, is a completely different beast. Unlike the 2023 leak, it doesn’t contain email addresses, but it does hold a goldmine of profile metadata, including: User IDs and screen names. Profile descriptions and URLs. Location and time zone settings. Display names (current and from 2021). Followers count from both 2021 and 2025. Tweet count...