Hackers Strike Again; 380M ‘Twitter’ Passwords For Sale For $6K

Just when it seems like the threats to cyber security have finally been addressed, hackers give social media users another reason to deactivate their accounts. A hacker named Tessa88 is asking for 10 bitcoin in exchange for over 379 million “Twitter” passwords; the dollar equivalent is over $6,000 in the current exchange rate.

According to LeakedSource, the site that originally posted news about the leak, the “Twitter” passwords in question were most likely harvested via malware. The social site itself did not suffer any breach in security, so the hacker likely did not get the passwords by penetrating “Twitter’s” system.

Tessa88 is also said to be responsible for hacks suffered by “MySpace,” “LinkedIn” and “Tumbler,” so users and social networks can at least take solace in the knowledge that this is not an epidemic of hackers gone rogue; at least, not yet. On a similar note, the Los Angeles Times also noticed that the “Twitter” passwords are being sold for less than the 179 million “LinkedIn” passwords, which were for also for sale.

Despite having more numerous login credentials to sell, each “Twitter” account was worth $.0015, while the “LinkedIn” passwords were worth $.25 each. This was supposedly likely because of the saturation that the black market is experiencing thanks to the substantial number of passwords for sale. More than that, “Twitter” accounts offer far less important information than “LinkedIn” accounts would.

With “LinkedIn,” hackers get details like the real names of the account holders, their addresses, their job titles, and so on. Users with bigger salaries can make for particularly attractive targets because they are less likely to notice discrepancies with their bank accounts, for example. Ori Eisen is the chief executive of an online security firm called Trusona confirmed as much to the LA Times.

“The more I reveal what I do, the picture becomes less about my identity [and] more about value on the black market because it has credit card implications,” he said.