Twitter says that during a major breach last weekend one elected Netherlands official had their DMs hacked. As reported by Android Central, this official was one of 36 accounts affected in the breach.
This comes after a string of breaches in recent weeks. Most recently eight non-verified accounts were hacked. Hackers used the ‘Your Twitter Data’ tool to achieve this. Before this, a number of business users were all comprised in early July.
The FBI is currently investigating this most recent breach which his different to the other two previously mentioned. This forms a part of the high profile breach which saw high profile accounts send out tweets regarding a bitcoin scam.
Elected official amongst those affected by major breach
A statement provided by Twitter reveals the extent of the attack and its success. It says that “We believe that for up to 36 of the 130 targeted accounts, the attackers accessed the DM inbox, including 1 elected official in the Netherlands.”
The company was quick to point out that “to date, we have no indication that any other former or current elected official had their DMs accessed.”
As more information comes out this does look to be quite a varied attack by the hackers. Some users had their direct messaged accessed. A further eight had all their data downloaded. However, none of these eight were verified accounts.
However, a further 45 had their accounts comprised in a different way. Most of these were high profile individuals and the attack sent out tweets encouraging people to send bitcoin. This came with the promise of the money would be doubled.
Many of the users involved are still unable to regain access to their accounts. This has concerned many that the major breach may have run deeper into Twitter than first thought.
Twitter claims it is in constant communication with those affected. The company has promised to share updates when it has them.
Twitter continues to investigate the breach
Sources close to the company claim the breach was unlikely to caused by a Twitter employee. However, whoever was behind it, gained access to internal tools to carry out the attack.
This was clearly a well-organized attack on one that is unlikely to have a quick solution. Twitter is continuing to investigate the breach as is the FBI. With Twitter under fire from politicians were the way it is dealing with hate speech and misinformation, this is the last thing that the company needs.