TikTok, Instagram, YouTube: millions of data exposed

A large data breach, about 235 million accounts, would have touched the platforms of Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. The fault would be of a company, now no longer existing, that would have created a huge database with sensitive information of many users.

Data breach with data scraping

To discover the gigantic database is was Bob Diachenko, a security researcher who works for the company Comparitech. According to the expert, the data would have been obtained through the scraping of information, directly from the platforms. The managers, as anticipated, would report to a company now dissolved, Deep Social.

When Diachenko made contact with the company, he was diverted to Social Data, headquartered in Hong Kong. The latter immediately recognized the danger of the database, freely available online, and blocked access to it. However, Social Data has in any case denied any responsibility and involvement in the creation of the DB, containing names, surnames, email addresses and also the number of followers and other information of the various social profiles. The company also denied any allegations regarding the unlawful obtaining of the information. A spokesperson pointed out:

Please note that the negative connotation - that the data has been breached - implies that the information has been obtained surreptitiously. This is not true, all data is freely available to anyone with internet access.