Technology

200 million social media records leaked in major X data breach

Published

11 months ago

April 10, 2025

200 million social media records leaked in major X data breach

X, formerly known as Twitter, has been making headlines recently, with Elon Musk claiming that hackers have been trying to disrupt the platform. However, the most recent news involving the social media site is particularly alarming and puts its users at serious risk.

Earlier this month, reports emerged of a major data breach involving X, after a self-proclaimed data enthusiast known as “ThinkingOne” claimed to have released a database containing over 200 million user records on a popular hacker forum. The leaked data includes names, email addresses and nearly everything else associated with a user’s X profile.

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X app on an iPhone (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

What you need to know

The X data leak is believed to stem from a combination of breaches, including a massive one that allegedly occurred in January 2025 and another in 2023. The leaked dataset, reportedly a 34 GB CSV file, contains 201,186,753 entries with information such as X screen names, user IDs, full names, locations, email addresses (from the 2023 breach), follower counts, profile data, time zones and profile images.

ThinkingOne claimed that the data was cross-referenced from a larger breach involving 2.8 billion unique Twitter IDs and screen names. This breach may have been linked to an insider job during layoffs at X, although the company has not verified this claim. Cybersecurity researchers, including those from Safety Detectives, partially confirmed the authenticity of the data by matching a sample with public X profiles and verifying some email addresses. However, they were not able to fully confirm ownership.

The breach appears to trace back to a vulnerability identified in January 2022 through Twitter’s bug bounty program. This flaw allowed attackers to access user data using only an email address or phone number. Although the vulnerability was patched, the compromised data seems to have resurfaced in later leaks.

Partial confirmation of the data (Safety Detectives) (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

MALWARE EXPOSES 3.9 BILLION PASSWORDS IN HUGE CYBERSECURITY THREAT

The data breach puts X users at risk

The 2025 incident alone does not include passwords or financial information, but when combined with the email addresses from the 2023 leak, it significantly increases the risk of phishing and social engineering attacks. X has not officially acknowledged this specific breach at the time of writing, although it previously downplayed the 2023 incident by claiming it involved mostly public data.

The total of 2.8 billion records far exceeds X’s estimated 335 to 600 million active users, suggesting that the dataset may include inactive accounts, bots or historical data. While the full scope and impact of the breach remain unclear, the incident highlights ongoing security challenges for the platform, especially following its acquisition by xAI in late March 2025.

X logo on a smartphone (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

HOW TO REMOVE YOUR PRIVATE DATA FROM THE INTERNET

7 ways you can stay safe from the X data breach

If you have an account on X or think your data may have been part of the breach, here are seven important steps you can take to protect yourself.

1) Use strong antivirus software

This breach included email addresses linked to X accounts, prime fuel for phishing attacks. Hackers may now send emails that look like they’re from X, Musk or support, asking you to “verify your account” or “reset your password.” These often contain links or attachments that can install malware or steal personal data.

The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have strong antivirus software installed on all your devices. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe. Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices.

2) Remove your personal data from the internet

Since this X leak exposed full names, email addresses and other public-facing profile details, hackers can easily cross-reference it with other data broker sites to build a full profile on you. This could lead to impersonation or spear-phishing.

To reduce your exposure, use a trusted data removal service that scans data broker websites and requests the deletion of your personal information. While no service promises to remove all your data from the internet, having a removal service is great if you want to monitor and automate the process of removing your information from hundreds of sites continuously over a longer period of time. Check out my top picks for data removal services here.

3) Change your X account password

Even though this particular breach may not have included passwords, there’s still a significant risk, especially if you use the same password across multiple platforms. Once attackers have your email, they often try using it with common or previously leaked passwords to break into accounts.

To change your X account password, go to Settings and privacy from your profile menu, then select Your account and tap on Change your password. Enter your current password, set a new strong password and confirm the change. You can do this via the mobile app or by logging in through the web. Consider using a password manager to generate and store complex passwords. Get more details about my best expert-reviewed password managers of 2025 here.

4) Make your X profile more private to reduce future risk

Adjust your X account’s privacy settings to limit the visibility of personal information, such as making your profile private. Ensure that only necessary information is publicly visible. Information that seems harmless, like your location, job title or birthday, can be used by cybercriminals to impersonate you or guess your login credentials. If your X profile includes any personal details that aren’t necessary, now is the time to remove them.

Keeping your profile minimal not only protects your privacy but also makes it harder for scammers to craft convincing phishing messages or social engineering attacks. Think twice before posting personal updates or details publicly, especially if they can be used to guess passwords or verify your identity.

Go to Settings > Privacy and safety and lock down your account visibility.

5) Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for your X and email accounts

If hackers got your email from the X breach, they may try to reset your password. 2FA helps stop this by requiring a second code to log in:

Use an authenticator app like Google Authenticator or Authy, not SMS, which can be intercepted
Secure your email accounts, too, since they can be used to reset your X credentials

6) Use a VPN on public Wi-Fi

Protect your data when accessing X or other platforms on public networks by using a VPN to encrypt your connection. This will help safeguard your information from being intercepted by malicious actors. A reliable VPN is essential for protecting your online privacy and ensuring a secure, high-speed connection. For the best VPN software, see my expert review of the best VPNs for browsing the web privately on your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices.

7) Sign up for identity theft protection to catch if your X-linked info is abused

With 200-plus million names and email addresses exposed, scammers may try opening accounts in your name or use your email in fraud attempts. Good identity protection can alert you if your info is being sold on the dark web. It can also assist you in freezing your bank and credit card accounts to prevent further unauthorized use by criminals. See my tips and best picks on how to protect yourself from identity theft.

NEW PHISHING SCAM OUTSMARTS SECURITY CODES TO STEAL YOUR INFO

Kurt’s key takeaway

The X breach is yet another reminder that patching a vulnerability is only one piece of a much larger puzzle. The persistence of leaked data – years after the original flaw was disclosed and fixed – highlights the long tail of exposure that comes with large-scale breaches. Even when credentials aren’t involved, the combination of identifiers like email addresses, names and social connections can be weaponized through correlation attacks, data enrichment and AI-assisted social engineering.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

How the spiraling Iran conflict could affect data centers and electricity costs

Published

6 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

How the spiraling Iran conflict could affect data centers and electricity costs

Soon after the Trump administration launched its war on Iran, I called up Reed Blakemore, director of research and programs at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center, to talk about the consequences. While oil and gas prices were already on the rise, there was still more hope then that the impact of the conflict might be short-lived. At the end of our conversation, Blakemore said plainly: “Let’s have a call again [next week] … We’ll have a much clearer picture of what the conflict is going to look like and what the story really is going to be for energy moving forward.”

Energy infrastructure has become a key leverage point in the unfolding war

It’s a week later and the conflict has only escalated since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Energy infrastructure has become a key leverage point in the unfolding war, with Israel hitting Iranian fuel depots and Iran targeting Gulf neighbors’ oil and gas infrastructure in its own strikes. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened on Tuesday not to “not allow the export of even a single liter of oil from the region to the hostile side and its partners until further notice.” Iran has reportedly also started to lay mines in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of global petroleum consumption and liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade used to move.

I talked to Blakemore again today about what Iran’s continued chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz means for energy costs and US tech companies’ rush to build out energy-hungry AI data centers.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What’s your outlook now on how the conflict is likely to affect oil and gasoline prices?

Reed Blakemore: The fundamental issue right now, in terms of the energy implications of the conflict, is how the market is reacting to the uncertainty around safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

At the outset of the conflict when we saw insurance premiums going up for these ships, we were largely talking about it in the context of, Hey, it’s just gotten much more expensive for a ship to traverse the Gulf and therefore they’re staying out.

We’ve moved from that to actual concerns around the security of passing through the straits in the first place, so this is no longer an insurance cost issue as much as it is a safety and security issue.

We have virtually no traffic passing through the Strait of Hormuz. A lot of countries are beginning to shut in production. So there’s already this ripple effect emerging purely because the market and basically tankers are fundamentally concerned about whether or not they will be able to safely pass through the strait.

“There’s only so much that US energy dominance can do to shield US consumers”

The other feature that I think we’ve seen the market react strongly to in the past several days is a sense of how long this conflict is going to last. And I think you can look to the comments from the president in the last 72 hours and the market’s reaction as a major piece of evidence to that end. Moving into the weekend where the campaign had clearly escalated, the uncertainty around how open the Strait of Hormuz would or wouldn’t be was beginning to reach a fever pitch. The response from markets when they opened in Asia on Sunday going past $100 a barrel to nearly $120 a barrel is really a function of the market not having a sense that this would be over anytime soon. That pullback that we saw over the course of yesterday was in response to the president saying fundamentally that Hey, we have an end in sight to this conflict.

The United States is a major oil producer. I think the strategy of US energy dominance played a significant role in terms of shielding US consumers from the initial market consequences of the decision to go to war with Iran. The price increases we’ve seen thus far would have been much more responsive to the market volatility. That has bought the administration a little bit of time as it relates to how long until we see the gasoline prices really begin to pick up steam domestically. But as this conflict persists and the volatility in the market continues, we will begin to see upward pressure on gasoline prices, regrettably, over time.

There’s only so much that US energy dominance can do to shield US consumers from what is a globally traded market in terms of oil. Because the United States is a major domestic oil producer, it has the ability to put some downward pressure on its own gasoline prices.

But because via its oil exports it participates in a global market, it has that exposure to global oil market volatility.

Can we expect electricity prices to go up also? Why?

For the United States, the gas story is a little bit better, but not immune from the global market as well. Natural gas is largely regionally traded within the United States. The US is a major producer of natural gas for domestic consumption in a way that further insulates it. That makes the case of the United States much different than the gas price sensitivity we’re seeing in Europe or in Japan or other parts of East Asia.

The problem is similar to the oil story because the United States is a major LNG exporter. As natural gas prices increase elsewhere, LNG exporters will be incentivized to export more gas because that’s where the arbitrage opportunity is, and that will create the upward price pressure domestically in the United States.

What risks does that pose to tech companies and this push to build out more AI data centers and related energy infrastructure?

In the United States, the majority of the data center buildout has begun to be powered by natural gas. We’re not going to see electricity prices reach a crisis point in the United States in the short term because of this conflict. The time horizon that we’re talking about with gas and therefore electricity prices is likely in the time horizon of months rather than weeks you’d expect with oil.

However, the longer this conflict lasts and the more tightness we see in the global gas market — that will eventually permeate the United States and create that upward pressure on gas prices in a way which then affects electricity prices and then that brings the data center question into play.

I think the unique thing is it doesn’t necessarily affect the ability of data centers to purchase energy. Electricity costs are a relatively marginal proportion of the cost of building and operating a data center. What it does do is it only further inflames the energy affordability challenges that are currently deteriorating social license in the country for data centers. So the impact on electricity prices likely won’t directly harm data center buildout. The ancillary affordability challenges it will create will further entrench popular discontent with data center buildout, because data centers are simply making consumer electricity bills much more expensive.

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Justine Calma

Technology

Burger King AI listens to workers

Published

6 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

The next time you pull up to the drive-thru at Burger King, you may notice something different. The greeting might sound warmer. The thank you might feel extra intentional. That could be Patty. The company is expanding a new AI-powered assistant that listens to employee headset interactions and tracks how staff speak with customers. The goal, according to executives, is simple. Create friendlier restaurants and smoother operations. But the rollout raises a bigger question. When does coaching become monitoring?

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BURGER KING MAKES CHANGES TO SIGNATURE WHOPPER FOR FIRST TIME IN NEARLY A DECADE

Burger King is rolling out an AI assistant named Patty to monitor employee drive-thru greetings and track customer interactions. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

What is Burger King’s Patty AI assistant and how does it work?

Burger King’s Patty AI assistant runs on technology from OpenAI. In practice, it listens for key phrases such as “Welcome to Burger King,” “Please” and “Thank you.” It then compiles that information into reports so managers can measure how consistently staff use polite language. Although company leaders say it is not recording every conversation, they frame it as a coaching tool designed to reinforce service standards.

Beyond tracking manners, Patty also supports daily operations. For example, it can answer questions about how many bacon strips go on a sandwich or how to clean specific equipment. In addition, it flags inventory shortages and alerts managers when machines stop working. It even tracks how often employees tell customers an item is unavailable, which can highlight supply gaps.

As a result, that data has already influenced menu decisions, including the return of apple pie after its removal in 2020. Taken together, Patty functions as a manners coach, kitchen assistant and data analyst rolled into one.

From pilot program to nationwide push

Burger King began testing Patty at about 100 U.S. locations last year. Now the company plans to expand to roughly 500 stores, with a goal of rolling it out nationwide by year’s end.

And Burger King is not alone. Rivals like Wendy’s, Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and KFC have all tested AI in some form. Some experiments focused on automated ordering. Others used AI to streamline drive-thru operations.

Results have been mixed. Customers have praised the faster service. They have also complained about glitches and awkward robotic interactions. Burger King’s version stands out because it focuses on employee behavior, not just customer convenience.

TACO BELL TOPS NEW DRIVE-THRU SPEED RANKINGS, AND CHICK-FIL-A WINS ON SATISFACTION

Fast-food chains are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to streamline service and boost efficiency. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Coaching tool or digital hall monitor?

Burger King says Patty exists to help managers coach teams and improve hospitality. Executives argue that customers want a warmer experience. Data simply helps restaurants measure it.

Yet social media reaction tells a different story. Some critics say constant monitoring creates pressure. They worry about employees having a bad day and getting flagged for forgetting a single word. Others describe it as surveillance disguised as support.

This tension reflects a larger trend in the workplace. AI increasingly measures performance in warehouses, offices and retail counters. Now it is moving into fast-food headsets. The real debate is not about politeness. It is about power.

The bigger AI trend in fast food

Fast-food chains operate on razor-thin margins. Small efficiency gains matter. If AI reduces waste, speeds up service and improves customer satisfaction, companies will keep investing. At the same time, public opinion matters. Customers say they value authenticity. Employees want fair treatment. The companies that succeed will need to balance both.

FAST-FOOD RESTAURANTS USING NEW TECHNOLOGY TO RESHAPE HOW CUSTOMERS PLACE ORDERS

Burger King plans to expand Patty to 500 U.S. stores this year, with a nationwide rollout targeted by year’s end. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

What this means to you

If you are a customer, you may notice friendlier greetings and fewer out-of-stock surprises. AI can help restaurants restock faster and fix broken machines sooner. That could mean shorter lines and more consistent menus. If you are an employee, the shift feels different. Every please and thank you becomes part of a data stream. Managers can track patterns instead of relying on occasional observations. For workers, that may increase accountability. It may also increase stress. For the industry, this signals a future where AI quietly runs in the background of nearly every transaction.

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Kurt’s key takeaways

Technology keeps moving into spaces that once felt purely human. The drive-thru greeting used to be about personality and mood. Now it may be part of a data dashboard. Some will see that as progress. Others will see it as overreach.

If AI can measure kindness, should it? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com

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Technology

Slay the Spire II is even better with a friend

Published

18 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Slay the Spire II is even better with a friend

Slay the Spire II launched in early access last week, and it’s already an excellent sequel to one of the best roguelikes of all time. In many ways, it’s very similar to its predecessor. Like Hades II and Hollow Knight: Silksong, Slay the Spire II mostly iterates on an already superb foundation. But it does add online co-op with up to four players. While multiplayer changes the familiar rhythms of Slay the Spire just a bit, it’s still a great way to tackle the arduous climb up the spire.

A round of Slay the Spire II plays essentially the same as the original: In each run, you navigate three different acts across a winding map, slowly making a build by crafting your deck and picking up various perk-giving relics, and fighting enemies, elites, and bosses along the way. Slay the Spire II retains the deliberate, turn-based style of play, meaning that when it’s your turn, you have as much time as you want to decide what to do. Since you can see exactly what your enemies are planning for their next turn, there’s a lot of strategy in deciding how much damage to do and how much defense you might need to set up. Multiplayer adds a slight twist: When it’s your turn, everyone can play simultaneously. That opens up all sorts of new opportunities for planning, but it also requires communication to make sure everyone is using their cards effectively.

My multiplayer partner was my wife, the biggest Slay the Spire fan I know, and on our second run we got a thrilling victory. I played the new Necrobinder character, a necromancer, while she played as the returning Silent, which can make decks built around flurries of shivs. Over the course of the run, we accidentally settled into a strategy where I focused on applying the Vulnerable status to as many enemies as possible before my wife would rain down shivs upon our foes.

Slay the Spire II doesn’t encourage teamwork only in battles. At a campfire rest stop, you can choose to mend a friend’s health to help them out. (Some of the new enemies are tough, so I’m glad this is an option.) You each get a vote on which path to take next on the map. Everyone can draw on the map, too — as I learned many times after seeing the doodles my wife made when I would spend too long in the shop.

Since we had to communicate so much, our winning run took about an hour and a half, slower than how fast I could blast through runs in the first game. When we finally defeated the Act 3 boss, though, it was even more satisfying than most of my solo wins because we did it together. My one complaint is that co-op requires you to each play online on your own copy of the game, and that, because there’s no couch co-op, we each had to play on separate devices even though we were sitting on the couch right next to each other.

Those are annoying tradeoffs, but multiplayer is such a fun addition to Slay the Spire that I don’t mind. I can’t wait to try another multiplayer run and see what challenges — and doodles — are in store for me.