Massive X data leak affects over 200 million users.
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Bluesky people why are people still using Twitter?
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A self-proclaimed data enthusiast calling themselves ‘ThinkingOne’ has made a huge database containing 201 million pieces of user data from X freely available. The data is said to have come from two previous leaks and includes email addresses, locations and profile data of users of the social media platform.
That’s like, 400 actual non-bot accounts. Nobody is safe anymore!
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Exactly! I add a random string to each email address, too, so you can’t just guess other addresses. So, it’s usually something similar to
[email protected]. And, whenever a breach happens, I’ll generate a new random part and set that as my email address and invalidate the old one. Until the next breach. (Looking at you, LinkedIn…)That is clever!
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Wait, so you literally have hundreds of accounts? How do you manage them all?
This is what I do as well. I purchased my own custom domain name and run aliases off it using Addy. So as an example, an email for an online account would look like: ‘[email protected]’
Then I feed these accounts into a password manager so I don’t have to remember them.
All the aliases forward mail directly to my main inbox. Companies never see what my real address is. If I get spam, I know which company either sold my data or leaked my data. I can then take action by simply turning off that email alias and then spinning up a new one.
The best thing about owning your custom domain is that you’re in control and never have to change your email addresses. If I want to move to a new email provider, I can easily do that. The process, simplified:
- Buy a domain name
- Sign up for an email account at Tuta, Mailbox, etc.
- Set up your custom domain at that provider.
- Go to your Domain provider and update your MX records so that it syncs with the email provider.
- if you want to switch email providers, get a new one and then update your MX records to point to the new provider.
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That's re-victimization. People do people stuff, like using social networks. Furthermore, the database probably goes as far as previous being bought and renamed by Musk. So... you're note being fair.
The actual data compromise happened sometime before July 2022, months before Elon's purchase of Twitter happened. Telling people they shouldn't have registered their real phone numbers to Twitter in 2015 or whatever isn't really a helpful argument to make today.
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Bluesky will be in the same boat given enough time. Mastodon is the only proper stand-in for twitter.
OK but it's not even remotely close today.
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A self-proclaimed data enthusiast calling themselves ‘ThinkingOne’ has made a huge database containing 201 million pieces of user data from X freely available. The data is said to have come from two previous leaks and includes email addresses, locations and profile data of users of the social media platform.
Quick everyone do their banking on it!
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A self-proclaimed data enthusiast calling themselves ‘ThinkingOne’ has made a huge database containing 201 million pieces of user data from X freely available. The data is said to have come from two previous leaks and includes email addresses, locations and profile data of users of the social media platform.
So what is that, like 6 or 7 people?
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A self-proclaimed data enthusiast calling themselves ‘ThinkingOne’ has made a huge database containing 201 million pieces of user data from X freely available. The data is said to have come from two previous leaks and includes email addresses, locations and profile data of users of the social media platform.
I think they mean 40 million users and 160 million bots.
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Anyone know where these files where originally posted?
I was just about to ask. I know that there was a clearnet site for data breaches but that's since been taken by the DOJ.
I imagine there's an onion site but my onion experience is very little to know where to even begin to look. My searches on torch found very little.
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Anyone know where these files where originally posted?
I would like to know this too but all I see is many variations of the same joke in this comment section.
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Bluesky people why are people still using Twitter?
Mastodon is much better and resistant to enshittification. Bluesky is not federated or decentralized.
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I think they mean 40 million users and 160 million bots.
Seems like a dedicated person might be able to prove that. Go through the available data and see what % of leaked accounts actually point to a real person, or even a unique person. If it's mostly bots you'd see that pretty quick
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Wait, so you literally have hundreds of accounts? How do you manage them all?
Proton Pass has a feature exactly for that. You can create unlimited number of aliases, and kill ones that bacame compromised.
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A self-proclaimed data enthusiast calling themselves ‘ThinkingOne’ has made a huge database containing 201 million pieces of user data from X freely available. The data is said to have come from two previous leaks and includes email addresses, locations and profile data of users of the social media platform.
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So what is that, like 6 or 7 people?
It also includes the people that deleted their Twitter accounts following the acquisition. I'm one of those people and I'm especially annoyed because I only used that blasted app only to register to some giveaways when I was in middle school. I have since discontinued that email account, but still.
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Yes, and Bitwarden+SimpleLogin. Bitwarden to keep track of login info including the alias that is used for that site. SimpleLogin is where the aliasing is actually handled, they have a decent UI for enabling/disabling or generating reverse aliases (for outgoing emails) when needed.
It does take a little more effort to manage it, but it’s worth the payoff. I’ve been using this setup for about 9 months now and I finally got my first spam email a week ago. I looked at the address it was sent to, it was a site I ordered something from about 6 months ago. I sent them a message letting them know that either someone at their company is selling customer info to scammers or their database has been leaked, then I shut off the alias.
I sent them a message letting them know that either someone at their company is selling customer info to scammers or their database has been leaked, then I shut off the alias.
🫡
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This is what I do as well. I purchased my own custom domain name and run aliases off it using Addy. So as an example, an email for an online account would look like: ‘[email protected]’
Then I feed these accounts into a password manager so I don’t have to remember them.
All the aliases forward mail directly to my main inbox. Companies never see what my real address is. If I get spam, I know which company either sold my data or leaked my data. I can then take action by simply turning off that email alias and then spinning up a new one.
The best thing about owning your custom domain is that you’re in control and never have to change your email addresses. If I want to move to a new email provider, I can easily do that. The process, simplified:
- Buy a domain name
- Sign up for an email account at Tuta, Mailbox, etc.
- Set up your custom domain at that provider.
- Go to your Domain provider and update your MX records so that it syncs with the email provider.
- if you want to switch email providers, get a new one and then update your MX records to point to the new provider.
Awesome. How’s the Addy privacy posture looking?
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So what is that, like 6 or 7 people?
A sock for every puppet.
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Awesome. How’s the Addy privacy posture looking?
I signed up with them ensuring I read their privacy policy. Based on my personal privacy threat model, I’m okay with their policy. This wouldn’t fit a more intensive threat model.
I haven’t read it recently but last I remember they do have the option to temporarily store an email in the event of a failed delivery, until it can eventually get sent to you. This is opt-in I believe, and a toggle you can enable in your account.
In the time I’ve used them I haven’t had any issues with email deliveries. Been happy with the service so far, having left SimpleLogin and Proton for political reasons.
