Montana Twitter users may be affected by latest data breach
There's good news and bad news about the latest Twitter data breach.
Apparently, the vulnerability and data hack occurred months ago in early 2022. However, in just the last few days, the culprit had posted a sampling of the breached data and put the lot of it for sale online for at least $30,000. That ask has since been taken down.
What was accessed in this data breach? Typical stuff but important stuff. Names, phone numbers, and email addresses. What's interesting is that the data of big companies and celebrities were notably included in the stolen information, in addition to normal everyday users.
How were Montanans affected by this data breach? It's unclear exactly. Sadly, we've become so accustomed to these 'minor' breaches that many folks just ignore them. Don't do that. This data breach affected users worldwide so it's impossible to know exactly whose account info may have been stolen. The chances are small, but it's possible that anyone's data was leaked—and that's nothing to mess with.
What's the good news? The number of global users affected is really quite small with 5.4 million Twitter users' info being leaked. Twitter has an estimated 400 to 450 million monthly active users worldwide. (Reported user numbers vary greatly but the number of affected users is still a small percentage.)
The bad news? We have no idea whose info was breached and whose wasn't. A small sampling of the stolen data was released so perhaps I was breached and you were not. You probably will never know. All the more reason to take the normal precautions and change your password.
This breach was global and affected famous Twitter users and normal, everyday users. You can't possibly know unless your data actually gets posted or used for some other purpose. That's the whole point. Always take data breaches seriously and take the few minutes to protect your accounts.
Montana ranks pretty low on the list of Twitter users per state. According to All Business:
1. California
2. Texas
3. Florida
4. Illinois
5. Georgia
6. New York
7. Washington
8. Pennsylvania
9. Massachusetts
10. Ohio
11. Michigan
12. North Carolina
13. Arizona
14. Colorado
15. Tennessee
16. Virginia
17. Oregon
18. Indiana
19. Minnesota
20. Maryland
21. Wisconsin
22. Nevada
23. Missouri
24. South Carolina
25. New Jersey
26. Oklahoma
27. Alabama
28. Louisiana
29. Kentucky
30. Iowa
31. Utah
32. Kansas
33. Connecticut
34. Arkansas
35. Nebraska
36. Idaho
37. New Mexico
38. Hawaii
39. Mississippi
40. New Hampshire
41. Maine
42. Rhode Island
43. West Virginia
44. Montana
45. Alaska
46. Vermont
47. Delaware
48. North Dakota
49. South Dakota
50. Wyoming