X said its investigation found no evidence that the 200-million-account dataset sold in late 2022 was obtained by exploiting X systems. That is the company’s stated conclusion, not an independently verified finding about the dataset’s origin. It is also separate from an earlier contact-discovery flaw that X said a bad actor exploited before the flaw was fixed.
What did X conclude about the 200-million-record dataset?
In a statement dated January 11, 2023, X said “there is no evidence that data recently being sold was obtained by exploiting a vulnerability of X systems.” The statement addressed data reported as linked to 200 million X-associated accounts. X said it could not correlate that dataset with exploitation of its systems or with the earlier confirmed contact-discovery incident. X’s January 11 statement
This answers what the company reported finding. The statement does not independently establish how the 200-million dataset was assembled, and the primary sources cited here do not provide a separate forensic verification of its provenance.
How does this differ from the contact-discovery flaw?
The earlier issue was a flaw in how Twitter matched submitted contact details to accounts. A person could submit an email address or phone number and learn whether it was associated with a Twitter account. X said a June 2021 code update introduced the flaw, and that it received a report through its bug-bounty program in January 2022.
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Twitter disclosed and fixed the flaw on August 5, 2022. It initially said it had no evidence the issue had been exploited. After reviewing a sample of data offered for sale, it later confirmed that a bad actor had taken advantage of the flaw before it was addressed. Twitter’s August 5, 2022 disclosure
In its 2023 statement, X said 5.4 million accounts were the same accounts exposed in August 2022. It separately said it could not correlate the later 400-million-instance dataset with the prior incident or a new incident, and could not correlate the 200-million-account dataset with the earlier incident or with data originating from exploitation of X systems.
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How did X describe the datasets?
| Dataset | What X said |
|---|---|
| 5.4 million accounts | X said these were the accounts exposed in August 2022 through the contact-discovery flaw. |
| 400 million instances of user data | X said it could not correlate this dataset with the earlier incident or a new incident. |
| 200 million accounts | X said it could not correlate this dataset with the earlier incident or with data originating from exploitation of X systems. |
X also said the 400-million and 200-million datasets were the same after duplicates were removed. It said none of the datasets it analyzed contained passwords or information that could lead to passwords being compromised. That statement applies to the datasets X analyzed; it should not be generalized to every dataset or account-related incident.
Which other Twitter/X incidents should not be confused with these leaks?
The 2020 employee-targeting incident
Twitter described the 2020 incident as a phone spear-phishing attack against employees that enabled access to internal support tools. In its July 30 update, Twitter reported that 130 accounts were targeted, tweets were sent from 45, direct-message inboxes were accessed for 36, and data was downloaded from 7. Those figures concern that separate incident, not the later contact-data datasets. Twitter’s July 30, 2020 update
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The third-party SDK issue
X’s Help Center describes a distinct malicious third-party software development kit (SDK) issue. It says the problem involved a lack of isolation between SDKs in an application, rather than a vulnerability in X software, and that there was evidence of data access for at least some X account holders using Android. X Help Center: malicious third-party apps
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What should users do?
X advised users to enable two-factor authentication using an authentication app or a hardware security key, and to be wary of urgent or information-seeking emails that could use leaked contact details for phishing. Its 2022 notice also advised people with pseudonymous accounts not to associate publicly known email addresses or phone numbers with those accounts. These are X’s recommendations; they do not mean the 200-million dataset contained passwords.
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