Twitter says hackers saw direct messages of 36 accounts
July 23, 2020
Twitter on Wednesday revealed that the hackers involved in last week's wide-scale security breach of its systems had accessed the private messages of 36 accounts, including that of an "elected official" in the Netherlands.
"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," Twitter said in a statement.
The company added that it had no indication that the direct messages of any other elected official, former or current, were accessed.
"We are actively working on communicating directly with the account-holders that were impacted," Twitter said.
Several verified high-profile Twitter accounts were hacked last week, including those of former US President Barack Obama, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, rapper Kanye West, and Tesla founder Elon Musk.
Twitter would not say whether any of the 36 accounts where messages may have been read included any verified accounts, Reuters reported.
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The attackers were able to post from 45 of the accounts and download mass data from eight accounts, Twitter had previously said, adding that it would investigate the extent of the attack.
"Attackers were able to view personal information including email addresses and phone numbers," the company said.
The posts, which were later deleted, asked users to send $1,000 (€876) in bitcoin donations within half-an-hour and get double the money in return.
The Bitcoin account linked in the fake tweets received nearly 12.9 bitcoins, currently equivalent to over $114,000 (€100,00).
Twitter has not yet revealed who or where the attack came from, and said its investigation is ongoing. A probe by the FBI is underway and the US Senate had demanded the company brief Congress on the hack.
adi/nm (Reuters, dpa)