“Embarrassed” Twitter Makes Apology For Hack that Hit 130 Accounts

Revealing details about the hack that Twitter encountered last week, the company said that the hack has targeted 130 accounts including those of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Joe Bidden. The people behind them were also able to reset the password of 45 users of those accounts.

In a blog post, the company disclosed that the hackers also downloaded the account information of 8 accounts using the “Your Twitter Data” tool. The hack which targeted many of its high-profile users, such as Warren Buffett and Barack Obama, and further said that no data was downloaded from any of the verified accounts.

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Twitter in its blog post said, “We’re embarrassed, we’re disappointed, and more than anything, we’re sorry. We know that we must work to regain your trust, and we will support all efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice.” 

Those who are not aware, a group of hackers attacked the website and broke into the accounts of celebrities, world leaders and business tycoons in one of the biggest security breaches highlighted in recent times. The attackers sent tweets from the accounts of many of these public figures asking them to send $1,000 in an anonymous Bitcoin address and in return, they will send back $2,000 to them.

Talking on the matter over an email, Allison Nixon, Chief Research Officer at a cybersecurity firm 221B said, “the people behind the attack appear to have come from the “OG” community, a group interested in original, short Twitter handles such as @a, @b or @c, for instance. Based upon what we have seen, the motivation for the most recent Twitter attack is similar to previous incidents we have observed in the OG community — a combination of financial incentive, technical bragging rights, challenge, and disruption.”

“Based upon what we have seen, the motivation for the most recent Twitter attack is similar to previous incidents we have observed in the OG community — a combination of financial incentive, technical bragging rights, challenge, and disruption,” Nixon wrote.

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“The OG community is not known to be tied to any nation-state. Rather they are a disorganized crime community with a basic skill set and are a loosely organized group of serial fraudsters.”

While this attack did not appear to go further than the Bitcoin ruse — at least for now — it raises questions about Twitter’s ability to secure its service against election interference and misinformation ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

“Entire markets and potentially elections may be manipulated or altered in this way,” Nixon said.

“Victims of account takeovers generally do not know that the fraud has occurred, and generally cannot take security precautions to prevent it.”