Twitter Corrects an Exploited API Endpoint That Matched Usernames, Phone Numbers

The social network said in a blog post that it became aware of a large network of fake accounts last Dec. 24 that was exploiting its application-programming interface to match usernames to phone numbers.

The accounts were immediately suspended, and changes were made to the API endpoint that had been exploited in order to prevent similar breaches.

Twitter said in its blog post, “While we identified accounts located in a wide range of countries engaging in these behaviors, we observed a particularly high volume of requests coming from individual IP (internet protocol) addresses located within Iran, Israel and Malaysia.