Twitter says state-backed actors may have accessed users' phone numbers

The feature, which allows people with a user's phone number to find and connect with that user on Twitter, is off by default for users in the European Union where stringent privacy rules are in place

Twitter said on Monday that it had discovered attempts by possible state actors to access the phone numbers associated with user accounts, after a security researcher unearthed a flaw in the company's "contacts upload" feature.

In a statement published on its privacy blog, Twitter said it had identified a "high volume of requests" to use the feature coming from IP addresses in Iran, Israel and Malaysia. It said, without elaborating, that "some of these IP addresses may have ties to state-sponsored actors."

A company spokeswoman declined to say how many user phone numbers had been exposed, saying Twitter was unable to identify