A 10-Terabyte Data Dump on Trump, Russia Hyped by ‘Anonymous’ Isn’t Real

Accounts claiming ties to the hacking collective Anonymous announced the release of 10 terabytes of data that expose Russia, President Donald Trump, and corruption across the globe. If this were true, it would be a huge scoop. However, after digging deeper, it appears that the claims are largely exaggerated and based on false information.

The hype started with @YourAnonTV, an X user with nearly 492,000 followers, who claimed to have access to a massive data cache containing sensitive information on businesses operating in Russia, Kremlin assets in the West, pro-Russian officials, and even President Trump. The claim was quickly picked up by other prominent accounts, including @YourAnonCentral, which added that Trump had been swept up in the leak as well.

But there's a problem. A link to the supposed archive, titled “Leaked Data of Corrupt Officials,” leads to a compressed file less than 19 gigabytes in size – hardly the 10-terabyte behemoth promised. The source of the alleged hack appears to be @CyberUnknown45, a little-known X user with a handle that seems to be a play on words.

@CyberUnknown45 has been posting about the cache as far back as December 2023, and their timeline reveals regular updates to data they've added – mostly public information scraped from websites and hacks/leaks from others. In other words, it's more like a scrapbook of existing releases rather than a massive dump of new information.

Data experts have examined portions of the archive and found that the characterizations currently being made online are highly inaccurate. Emma Best, co-founder of the journalism collective DDoSecrets, noted in a post on Bluesky that folders in the archive include odd names like “Dominoes Pizza” – clearly not what you'd expect from a top-secret hacking operation.

Best also examined folders allegedly containing leaked data on Trump, ex-Republican lawmaker Matt Gaetz, and rapper Kanye West. The files showed useless information like the IP address for instagram.com. It's hard to take these claims seriously when they're so clearly exaggerated or false.

Despite the hype, it appears that the alleged leak isn't new. @CyberUnknown45 has been posting about the cache for months, and most of the data is already public information.

The Daily Dot reached out to @CyberUnknown45 to inquire about the claims online, but didn't hear back. In any case, the vast majority of the data is neither new nor sensitive in nature, making the claims online wildly inaccurate.

Internet Culture and the Importance of Verification

The chaos of internet culture can be overwhelming, especially when it comes to sensationalized and false claims. As a journalist, it's essential to fact-check and verify information before sharing it with others. In this case, the lack of verification and critical thinking led to a massive hype surrounding a non-existent data dump.

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