Hackers announce they have data on a billion users, TikTok denies being hacked

TikTok denies being hacked. However, the data appears to be in the wild.

TikTok has denied being the victim of a security breach after several posts appeared on hacker forums claiming the app’s source code had been compromised, as well as details of billions of users. In a statement posted on Twitter, the company explains that it “found no evidence of a flaw”after its investigation. The company also told Bloomberg UK that the source code released by the hackers “has no connection to the TikTok back end source code.”

TikTok denies being hacked

Rumors of a potential vulnerability have been circulating in the security community following a forum post claiming that the database contains over two billion records associated with TikTok and WeChat accounts. The group claimed to have received this data through an unsecured cloud server.

The alleged hackers posted a sample of this data to TikTok, but security researcher Troy Hunt pointed out that it contains data that was already publicly available and indeed “could have been created without any flaws.”Troy Hunt, who runs habbeenpwned, said the data is inconclusive.

However, the data seems to be in the wild

While TikTok vehemently denies exploiting such a vulnerability, the information in the database may have come from other sources. As Bleeping Computer points out, this could be the work of a data broker or any other third party that obtained public data through the service.

The security breach claims come just days after Microsoft researchers discovered a major vulnerability in an Android app that puts millions of accounts at risk. The Redmond-based firm said the latter was patched less than a month after it was exposed by TikTok in February 2022. TikTok has long been criticized for its security practices and sharing of user data with its parent company ByteDance. The company said last month that Oracle could look into its moderation algorithms and systems to allay concerns.

TikTok prioritizes the privacy and security of our users’ data. Our security team investigated these claims and found no evidence of a security breach. https://t.co/TdCZDUFLPN

— TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) September 5, 2022