Twitter said the hackers seem to have targetted some 130 accounts and were able to log in, send tweets and reset the password on some of them.
Twitter Inc. said several of its employees were manipulated by hackers into providing credentials for internal systems, and 130 Twitter accounts were targeted including those of Joe Biden, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
The high-profile hijacking of Twitter accounts which was carried out earlier this week took place by targetting certain Twitter employees through a social engineering scheme, the social networking giant said in a statement on Saturday. It added that the hackers manipulated a small number of employees and used their credentials to access Twitter’s internal systems through two-factor protections.
The hackers were able to reset passwords for 45 users, while eight had their data, including private messages, downloaded entirely, Twitter said in a blog post late Friday. While the hack targeted high-profile users such as Barack Obama and Warren Buffett, Twitter later clarified that data wasn’t downloaded from any verified accounts, without providing identities.
Twitter said the hackers seem to have targetted some 130 accounts and were able to log in, send tweets and reset the password on some of them.
“As of now, we know that they accessed tools only available to our internal support teams to target 130 Twitter accounts. For 45 of those accounts, the attackers were able to initiate a password reset, login to the account, and send tweets,” it stated.
“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,” a post tweeted by Twitter Support read.
Twitter did not say, for instance, whether the hackers read any of the private messages of world leaders while logged into their accounts.
The attack on Wednesday involved a widespread scam, using the accounts of cryptocurrency companies, corporate leaders, and celebrities to solicit Bitcoin transfers, in exchange for a promise of doubling the money. Twitter is working with authorities including the Federal Bureau of Investigation to identify the hackers and figure out the extent to which users’ data was compromised.
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