TikTok denies that it was hacked after a hacking group posted pictures of what they say is a TikTok database with the platform's source code and user information (via Bleeping Computer). TikTok said that its team had looked into these claims and "found no evidence of a security breach."
According to Bleeping Computer, hackers posted pictures of the supposed database on a hacking forum and said they got the information from a TikTok server. It says that the server holds over 2 billion records and 790GB of user data, platform statistics, code, and other information.
In a statement to The TechGru, TikTok spokesperson Maureen Shanahan said, "We have confirmed that the data samples in question are all available to the public and are not the result of any breach of TikTok systems, networks, or databases." "We don't think users need to do anything independently, and we're still committed to ensuring our global community is safe and secure."
Most of the "stolen" data seems to be information available to the public and scraped from the platform. Troy Hunt, a regional director at Microsoft and creator of the Have I Been Pwned tool, called the hackers' data "inconclusive," but he guessed that "it could be non-production or test data" probably wasn't taken through a breach.
The hackers called "AgainstTheWest" also got information from the Chinese messaging app WeChat. But Hunt couldn't say for sure if the hackers' database had stolen information, and WeChat didn't answer TechGru's request for comment right away.
TikTok and WeChat have been looked at closely because of their connections to China. TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is based in China. TikTok has taken several steps, such as putting American data on Oracle's servers in the US, to try to stop reports that TikTok employees in China had access to information about US users.