Elon Musk cops massive ransom from dark web hackers with 400 million accounts at risk

A Twitter hacker has declared that they will sell the sensitive, private data of 400 million accounts if Elon Musk doesn't cough up USD$200,000 (AUD $297,487, £134,482).

If he doesn't, the information will be sold to there highest bidder.

Elon Musk’s reign at the social media giant company has been tumultuous in recent weeks, but now it appears things might get a whole lot worse for the embattled Twitter CEO.

As per Bleeping Computer, a cyber criminal calling themselves 'Ryushi' revealed on Telegram that they have swiped public, private, and sensitive data from 400 million accounts.

The hacker claimed they had managed to scrap the data after a leak earlier this year, leaving the company vulnerable and open to attacks.

Now, the cybercriminal is demanding USD$200,000 - which they said was a small amount compared to the hefty USD$276 million (AUD $410.7 million, £229.8 million) fine the Tesla founder could face for the breach.

The nefarious netizen went on to address Musk directly in his online threat, warning the billionaire that they won't hesitate to sell if he does not meet their demands.

"Twitter or Elon Musk: If you are reading this, you are already risking a General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) fine [worth] over $USD5.4 million (AUD$8 million, £3 million)," Ryushi wrote, as per the outlet.

"Your best option to avoid paying USD$276 million in GDPR breach fines like Facebook did (due to 533 million users being scraped) is to buy this data exclusively."

"Just imagine, famous content creators and influencers getting hacked on Twitter," Ryushi pondered in the post.

"That will for sure make them ghost the platform and ruin your dream.

"If you are unsure, just run a poll on Twitter like usual and people will choose their fate, because at the end of the day it’s the company’s fault that this data was breached."

They added they also had obtained the data of thirty-seven celebrities and politicians including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Donald Trump Jr., Mark Cuban, Kevin O'Leary, and Piers Morgan.

Ryushi added the information will be sold strategically so Musk incurs the maximum amount of damage.

The stolen information includes names, usernames, follower count, creation date, and phone numbers which Ryushi claimed would wind up in the hands of doxxers and scammers, ruining both those with the accounts and the SpaceX founder.

The hacker revealed to the reporters at BleepingComputer that they are attempting to sell the Twitter data exclusively to a single person or Twitter for USD$200,000.

The cyber criminal claimed they would then wipe the data following the exclusive purchase.

However, if an exclusive purchase is not made, they will sell numerous copies for USD$60,000 (AUD$89,000, £33,640) per sale.

They claimed they had contacted Twitter to ransom the data but did not receive a response.

Leading cybercrime intelligence agency Hudson Rock could not confirm if the database of 400 million accounts had been hacked.

The cybersecurity group reported the 'credible threat' on Twitter on Christmas Day.

"Please Note: At this stage it is not possible to fully verify that there are indeed 400,000,000 users in the database," they wrote.

"From an independent verification the data itself appears to be legitimate and we will follow up with any developments."

LADbible has reached out to Twitter for comment.