500 million Weibo user information leaked, 172 million entries sold for 0.177 Bitcoin.

Recently, concerning news has emerged in the cybersecurity community. Reports indicate that over 500 million Weibo user information is suspected to have been illegally traded on the dark web. Among this data, approximately 172 million entries contain users' basic account information, reportedly priced at up to 0.177 Bit. The leaked information is extensive, involving sensitive data such as user ID, number of posts, follower count, follow count, gender, and geographical location.

In response to this incident, the security head of the Weibo platform made a statement. He explained that the leaked phone number information originated from malicious matching through the contact upload interface in 2019, while other publicly available information was obtained through web crawling methods.

The person in charge further stated that after discovering data anomalies in 2019, the platform immediately took countermeasures and blocked relevant vulnerabilities. They promptly reported to law enforcement agencies and provided relevant evidence. At the same time, the platform has been actively investigating illegal activities of selling user information online. He emphasized that user privacy security is crucial, especially when it involves sensitive information such as phone numbers, which should be treated with extra caution.

This event once again highlights the importance and urgency of personal information protection in the internet era, and reminds major platforms to continuously strengthen data security measures to prevent various security threats.