Highlights:
- Twitter said its employees were manipulated by hackers
- Hackers tried to see the user names of some of the hacked accounts
- In total 130 twitter accounts were compromised
The US-based micro-blogging website Twitter has said that many of its employees were manipulated by the hackers into providing credentials for the internal systems which led to 130 Twitter accounts getting targeted by the hackers including Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Apple, Bill Gates.
In Total 45 accounts’ passwords were reset by hackers, said Twitter, and added that 8 accounts had their data, including the private chat, download entirely. On a blog post dated late Friday, Twitter disclosed this information.
The hackers targeted high-profile accounts which included the former Presidents of the United States of America Barack Obama, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, Twitter clarified that the data was not downloaded from any verified accounts, without providing the identities.
The blog post read that the hackers tried to sell the user names of some of the accounts as well.
Twitter said, “There are some details — particularly around remediation — that we are not providing right now to protect the security of the effort,” and added, “We are continuing our forensic review of all of the accounts to confirm all actions that may have been taken.”
However, Twitter did not confirm whether the hackers read any of the private chats of the world leaders while they had access to their accounts.
On Wednesday, the attack included a widespread scam which used the accounts of cryptocurrency companies, celebrities, and corporate tycoons to solicit Bitcoin transfers in exchange for a promise of doubling the money.
Currently, Twitter is working together with the authorities which include the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to identify the hackers and figure out the extent of the breach and the level of user data compromise.
