CHRIS VALLANCE FROM BBC
Politicians and celebrities are said to be affected but the scale of the data breach is unverified.
A watchdog is to investigate Twitter after a hacker claimed to have private details linked to more than 400 million accounts.
The hacker, “Ryushi”, is demanding $200,000 (£166,000) to hand over the data – reported to include that of some celebrities – and delete it.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) says it “will examine Twitter’s compliance with data-protection law in relation to that security issue”.
Twitter has not commented on the claim.
The data is said to include phone numbers and emails, including those belonging to celebrities and politicians, but the purported size of the haul is not confirmed. Only a small “sample” has so far been made public.
The Guardian reported that data of US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was included in the sample of data published by the hacker. The data of broadcaster Piers Morgan, who recently had his Twitter account hacked, is also reported to be included.
Twitter has so far not responded to press inquiries about the claimed breach.
Chief executive Elon Musk did not reply to a tweeted request for comment from leading cyber-security reporter Brian Krebs – though the breach, as Mr Krebs notes, probably occurred before the Tesla boss took over.
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Cyber-crime intelligence company Hudson Rock says it was the first to raise the alarm about the data sale.
While acknowledging the amount of data taken had not been verified, the firm’s chief technology officer, Alon Gal, told the BBC a number of clues appeared to support the hacker’s claim.
