A hacker says they breached TikTok and accessed personal data, including PayPal information, from more than 1 billion users. TikTok says a breach never happened.
A hacker says they have obtained personal data from more than 1 billion TikTok users, but some, including the company, say the hacker is lying.
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- A hacker claimed to have stolen data from billions of TikTok users, including payment information.
- TikTok says it has seen no evidence of a security breach and that the data was taken from third-party sources.
- The alleged breach comes during a period of scrutiny for TikTok as it faces accusations of spying on users for the Chinese government.
A hacker has claimed to have obtained user data from TikTok, but the company says it has found no evidence of a data breach.
The hacker, who goes by the name AgainstTheWest, says they gained access to the personal information of more than 1 billion TikTok users, including users' PayPal information.
In a direct message to Insider, BeeHive Cybersecurity, a cybersecurity research firm, said they believe AgainstTheWest's hacking claims are "trustworthy" and that the hacker has garnered respect in the cybersecurity community.
However, some have pushed back on the claim that the breach is legitimate.
A moderator on the beach detection platform, BreachForums, where AgainstTheWest initially revealed the breach, said AgainstTheWest has a "long history of lying about breaches and other things."
TikTok appears to agree that claims of a data breach are falsified.
In a statement to Insider, a TikTok spokesperson said, "Our security team has found no evidence of a security breach. We have confirmed that the data samples in question are all publicly accessible and are not due to any compromise of TikTok systems, networks, or databases. The samples also appear to contain data from one or more third party sources not affiliated with TikTok. We do not believe users need to take any proactive actions, and we remain committed to the safety and security of our global community."
Despite TikTok saying that users don't need to take proactive action, BeeHive CyberSecurity tweeted a suggestion to TikTok users to change their passwords and set up two-factor authentication to protect their data.
The rumored breach comes during a period of intense scrutiny on TikTok in matters of cybersecurity. The social media app has been accused of spying on users for its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, and, last month, a security researcher discovered code in the app that allows TikTok to track users' keystrokes, including passwords and credit card numbers. TikTok has denied spying on users or passing along user information to the Chinese government.