Alon Gal is an Israeli cybersecurity expert and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and chief technology officer of Hudson Rock,[1] a cybercrime intelligence company.[2][3][4]
Alon Gal | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1996 Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Other names | Under The Breach (Underthebreach) |
| Known for | Online privacy advocate |
| Website | www |
Data breaches edit
One of Gal's contributions to the industry was to uncover a massive data breach that affected over 533 million Facebook users.[3] The breach included users' phone numbers, email addresses, birthdays, and other personal information. Gal was the first to report the breach, which ultimately led to a $276 million fine for Facebook from the Irish Data Protection Commissioner for violating General Data Protection Regulation laws.[5]
In addition to the Facebook breach, Gal also played a role in uncovering a 2023 data breach that affected over 200 million Twitter users. The breach involved user information, including email addresses, usernames, and other personal information.[2]
Gal's work has also led to the uncovering of other significant data breaches, including a T-Mobile breach that exposed the personal information of 40 million customers.[6]
For a period of time between 2019 and 2021, Gal operated a pseudo-anonymous Twitter account and a Medium (website) blog called "Under The Breach", the account gained popularity for the uncovering of several additional data breaches such as the 91 million Indonesian Tokopedia users data leak,[7] the 337,000 Maltese voters database leak which resulted in a 65,000 euro fine,[8] and the 20 million BigBasket users data leak.[9]
References edit
- ^ "Twitter in data-protection probe after '400 million' user details up for sale". BBC News. 2022-12-29. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
- ^ a b Menn, Joseph. "Hackers leak email addresses tied to 235 million Twitter accounts". The Washington Post. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
- ^ a b Holmes, Aaron. "533 million Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online". Business Insider. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
- ^ "Twitter hacked, email addresses of over 200 million users exposed: Report". WION. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
- ^ Roth, Emma (2022-11-28). "Meta fined $276 million over Facebook data leak involving more than 533 million users". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
- ^ Lerman, Rachel (19 August 2021). "T-Mobile hack is a return to the roots of cybercrime". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 23 October 2022. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
- ^ "Indonesia's Tokopedia probes alleged data leak of 91 million users". Reuters. 2020-05-02. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
- ^ "IT firm C-Planet fined €65,000 over massive voter data breach". Times of Malta. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
- ^ "Big Basket data breach: email IDs, phone numbers, home addresses of two crore Indians allegedly leaked on the web". Business Insider. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
External links edit
- Official website
- Under The Breach
- Alon Gal at LinkedIn.
- Alon Gal's interview at PureVPN.