TikTok disputes studies claiming that it has been hacked.
After a hacking gang shared images of what they claim is a TikTok database including the platform’s source code and user data, TikTok denied reports that it had been compromised (via Bleeping Computer). According to TikTok, its team “found no proof of a safety breach” in response to such accusations.
According to Bleeping Laptop, hackers claimed they found the information on a TikTok server while posting images of the suspected database to a hacking forum. It states that the server keeps over 2 billion files and 790 GB worth of user data, platform statistics, code, and other things.
In a statement to The Verge, TikTok spokesperson Maureen Shanahan said, “We’ve determined that the information samples in question are all publicly accessible and are not the result of any penetration of TikTok programs, networks, or databases. “We continue to be committed to the protection and safety of our global community, and we don’t believe that customers need to take any preemptive measures.”
That is up to now fairly inconclusive; some information matches manufacturing information, albeit publicly accessible information. Some information is junk, nevertheless, it may very well be non-production or check information. It’s kind of of a combined bag up to now.
That is up to now fairly inconclusive; some information matches manufacturing information, albeit publicly accessible information. Some information is junk, nevertheless it may very well be non-production or check information. It’s kind of of a combined bag up to now.
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) September 5, 2022
Many of the allegedly stolen details appear to have been platform scraped public information. The Have I Been Pwned tool’s inventor, Troy Hunt, a regional director at Microsoft, called the hackers’ data “inconclusive,” but speculated that “it may very well be non-production or check information” that maybe wasn’t stolen through a breach.
The hacker collective “AgainstTheWest” claims to have gotten information from the Chinese messaging service WeChat as well. Hunt was unable to confirm whether or not the hackers’ database contained data that had been taken, and WeChat took some time to respond to The Verge’s request for comment.
Due to ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, having its headquarters in China, both TikTok and WeChat have come under fire. In an effort to disprove recent findings that TikTok employees in China were accessing the data of US customers, TikTok has taken a number of actions, such as storing American data on Oracle’s US-based servers.
