Twitter disclosed earlier today that hackers were able to download account information of eight accounts using the company’s “Your Twitter Data” tool. This tool provides an archive of an account’s Twitter data, including tweets and direct messages. While Twitter didn’t reveal the identity of these accounts, the company did say that none of the eight were a verified account. The company also announced that for 45 accounts, the hackers were able to initiative a password reset and send tweets.
Twitter’s latest revelations come a day after it had disclosed that the hackers targeted about 130 accounts during the cyberattack this week, an incident in which profiles of many prominent personalities and organisations were compromised. The company also said that it was reaching out to the eight Twitter users who data was downloaded by the hackers.
For up to eight of the Twitter accounts involved, the attackers took the additional step of downloading the account’s information through our “Your Twitter Data” tool. We are reaching out directly to any account owner where we know this to be true.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 18, 2020
There is a lot speculation about the identity of these 8 accounts. We will only disclose this to the impacted accounts, however to address some of the speculation: none of the eight were Verified accounts.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 18, 2020
“We are continuing our forensic review of all of the accounts to confirm all actions that may have been taken,” Twitter said. “In addition, we believe they may have attempted to sell some of the usernames.”
Hackers had accessed Twitter’s internal systems to hijack some of the platform’s top voices including US presidential candidate Joe Biden, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, former US President Barack Obama and billionaire Elon Musk and used them to solicit digital currency.
In its latest statement, the company said it was continuing the investigation into the incident and working with law enforcement.
“We are continuing our investigation of this incident, working with law enforcement, and determining longer-term actions we should take to improve the security of our systems,” Twitter said in a blog post. “We have multiple teams working around the clock focused on this and on keeping the people who use Twitter safe and informed.”
The high-profile accounts that were hacked also included rapper Kanye West, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, investor Warren Buffett, Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates, and the corporate accounts for Uber Technologies and Apple.
Twitter reiterated that it was working with impacted account owners.
The FBI’s San Francisco division is leading an inquiry into the hacking, with many Washington lawmakers also calling for an accounting of how it happened.
The law enforcement agency said that cyber attackers committed cryptocurrency fraud in the incident. Publicly available blockchain records show the apparent scammers received more than $100,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
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