Twitter estimates 130 accounts targeted by cyberattack

Twitter said that cyberattackers targeted 130 accounts in this week’s attack that affected prominent Twitter users including Joseph R. Biden, former President Barack Obama, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, and many others.

The social media platform said the attackers obtained unauthorized control over only “a small subset” of the targeted accounts, but Twitter still does not know the full extent of the damage.

“We are continuing to assess whether non-public data related to these accounts was compromised, and will provide updates if we determine this occurred,” Twitter said via its @TwitterSupport account on Thursday night. “For all accounts, downloading Your Twitter Data is still disabled while we continue this investigation.”

Alongside Twitter’s investigation, the federal government and Congress are also beginning to scrutinize the attack. The FBI’s San Francisco Division said Thursday that it was investigating the attack on Twitter and advised people not to fall victim to the attack’s apparent scam involving cryptocurrency.

Members of Congress from both chambers have written to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey seeking additional information on the attack, and both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee have requested a briefing on the problems at Twitter, according to reports.

Compromised accounts showed messages on Wednesday evening about the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and instructed Twitter users to send $1,000 and the prominent figures would respond by sending $2,000 back, according to messages posted on the accounts that no longer appear on Twitter’s platform.

While neither Twitter nor the FBI has yet publicly identified any suspects, independent researchers think the attackers utilized an insider who was paid to hand over information vital to the cyber intrusion.

Purported hackers told Vice’s Motherboard they paid a Twitter employee to help them gain access, and cybercrime reporter Brian Krebs has pointed to individuals specializing in social media “hijacking” as potential suspects. Mr. Krebs wrote on his website that forums utilized by social media hijackers showed a user advertising that they would provide access to Twitter accounts or change email addresses for any account for fees ranging up to $3,000.