There Are 1,000 Twitter Employees Who Have "Exclusive" Access

Twitter illustrations (pixabay)

JAKARTA - Dozens of Twitter accounts belonging to figures such as Barack Obama, Bill Gates to Elon Musk have been hacked by unknown people for spamming Bitcoin. The incident, which took place in mid-July, underscores Twitter's easy-to-infiltrate cybersecurity vulnerability.

Even recently, a report revealed, there are more than 1,000 Twitter employees and contractors who have exclusive access to the internal software of the microblogging platform. The owner of these accesses makes it possible to change settings and take over control of Twitter user accounts, freely.

"They have tools, which if taken over by hackers (hackers), it will easily enter into user accounts. They can control (accounts) of other people," said two sources who are former Twitter employees, quoted by Reuters, Friday 24 July.

In its initial statement, Twitter admitted that the hackers managed to manipulate a number of employees through social engineering to gain access. But then, Twitter refused to comment on the access tools that its employees have.

"(They) always work according to protocols, techniques, and high security mechanisms and for anyone who has access it is only used for valid business purposes. This access is only used when customers need service support," explained Twitter.

A number of cybersecurity experts assessed that internal threats from employees who have 'exclusive' access are very vulnerable to occur. Because the increasing number of people who can use this access, it is appropriate to strengthen cybersecurity surveillance.

To recap: 🔹130 total accounts targeted by attackers🔹45 accounts had Tweets sent by attackers🔹36 accounts had the DM inbox accessed🔹8 accounts had an archive of “Your Twitter Data” downloaded, none of these are Verified

- Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 23, 2020

The investigation into this hacking case is still being handled with the FBI. Moreover, this hacking has also succeeded in stealing data against 130 accounts, 45 of which were used to send fake tweets about bitcoin.

Of the 45 hacked accounts, Twitter accounts belonged to world celebrities such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Apple, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian West, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos to former US President Barack Obama.

It was reported that Coindesk, the Twitter account hacker, has managed to reap Bitcoin profits from its victims of up to 280 thousand US dollars or around Rp.4.1 billion (exchange rate of Rp.14,628).