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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTwitter reveals what it knows so far about massive hack
https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/twitter-reveals-what-it-knows-so-far-about-massive-hack/Twitter has revealed what it knows so far about the massive hack involving a bitcoin scam that targeted dozens of high-profile accounts on its service on Wednesday, July 15.
In a series of tweets posted on its Support account, the company said it believed the hack had been made possible by tricking one or more of its employees who had access to Twitters internal systems and tools.
We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools, the company said. Such an attack involves the perpetrator duping the target in this case one or more individuals at Twitter into making security-related errors or divulging sensitive information that enables the hacker to gain access to a companys internal systems. There are a number of ways in which this can be done, including through malicious emails that impersonate a trusted person.
We know they used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and tweet on their behalf. Were looking into what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed and will share more here as we have it.
It said that once it learned of the incident, it immediately locked down the affected accounts and removed the scam tweets posted by the attackers.
*snip*
captain queeg
(10,208 posts)irisblue
(32,982 posts)Silent3
(15,234 posts)This is not about whether or not you personally get fooled by any of this hacking. Social media is here to stay. You are NOT going to stop that by setting some brave example of resistance to social media (and besides, as someone else pointed out, DU counts as a form of social media too).
Your own personal distaste or skepticism about social media doesn't change a thing about dangerous problems of public trust and public deception caused by these kinds of security failures.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Both are Putin's Platforms.
HipChick
(25,485 posts)Nah..an internal job, or Twitter has some dumb ass employees..
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)Theyre very clever out there.
NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)There are several methods, all well known in industry circles.
Think of emails that look like your bank with links to fill in data, classically known as a spear phishing attack.
HipChick
(25,485 posts)Not ordinary Joe Public..
IT specialists at that...they have to take extra special training for these scenarios
NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)Especially if it is a Whaling Attack.
whistler162
(11,155 posts)done by Google employees, Google IT Professional certification. One of the presenters told the story of testing Google employees with a globe that lit up when plugged into an USB port but also had some code embedded into it to test employees. Quite a few employees plugged it into their computer thinking how generous Google was.
uponit7771
(90,347 posts)Renew Deal
(81,861 posts)Even Twitter administrators shouldnt be able to do that.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,010 posts)This is a very simple concept.
The hackers didn't post tweets through admin accounts.
They phished enough admin details to gain access to the system. One they do that, they can can change passwords and reset notification email addresses. All they need do is the latter. Once notification email is going to a mailbox they can read, then they login and fail the password and request a temporary password to be sent to that mailbox.
Then they use the changed password to access the account in the normal way and post the bogus tweets.
whistler162
(11,155 posts)Socialist engineering stuff!
Not to surprising social engineering was a factor.
JesterCS
(1,827 posts)I'm only mostly joking....
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly.
You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident.
Were continuing to limit the ability to Tweet, reset your password, and some other account functionalities while we look into this. Thanks for your patience.
Most accounts should be able to Tweet again. As we continue working on a fix, this functionality may come and go. We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible.
Our investigation is still ongoing but heres what we know so far:
We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools.
We know they used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf. Were looking into what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed and will share more here as we have it.
Once we became aware of the incident, we immediately locked down the affected accounts and removed Tweets posted by the attackers.
We also limited functionality for a much larger group of accounts, like all verified accounts (even those with no evidence of being compromised), while we continue to fully investigate this.
This was disruptive, but it was an important step to reduce risk. Most functionality has been restored but we may take further actions and will update you if we do.
We have locked accounts that were compromised and will restore access to the original account owner only when we are certain we can do so securely.
Internally, weve taken significant steps to limit access to internal systems and tools while our investigation is ongoing. More updates to come as our investigation continues.
</snip>
uponit7771
(90,347 posts)lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Silent3
(15,234 posts)Response attached to wrong message.
NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)I hope I'm alive in January when we get to Build Back Better.