Twitter said late Friday that a total of 45 accounts were compromised as a result of the unprecedented security incident suffered by the social media service earlier in the week.
Whoever hacked those accounts subsequently utilized a tool made available to Twitter users to download additional data about eight of those profiles, Twitter said in a blog post.
“This is a tool that is meant to provide an account owner with a summary of their Twitter account details and activity,” Twitter said in the blog post.
Among the information the “Your Twitter Data” allows users to download are direct messages that account has sent and received, according to the social media company.
Twitter did not name the eight accounts where the tool was used to download user data, but it said that none were “Verified” accounts, referring to high-profile users whose profiles and posts on the platform bear a blue checkmark to indicate their authenticity.
A total of 130 accounts were targeted during Wednesday’s attack, Twitter said earlier Friday. Verified accounts belonging to former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden and several billionaires and corporations were among the dozens successfully compromised and used to solicit donations in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Twitter said that its preliminary investigation suggests whoever was behind the attack had “successfully manipulated” a number of Twitter employees and then used their credentials to access internal company systems and then the accounts.
“We are continuing our investigation of this incident, working with law enforcement and determining longer-term actions we should take to improve the security of our systems,” Twitter said Friday. “We have multiple teams working around the clock focused on this and on keeping the people who use Twitter safe and informed.”
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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