Security News > 2020 > July > Twitter says hack of key staff led to celebrity, politician, biz account hijack mega-spree

Twitter has offered its initial analysis of the Wednesday mass hijacking of prominent twits' accounts - and suggested it all kicked off after its staff fell for social engineering.

Judging from leaked screenshots of Twitter's internal systems circulating online and seen by El Reg, it appears one or more miscreants were able to gain direct or indirect access to an administration panel used by Twitter employees to configure accounts, by tricking or coercing the social network's staff.

Twitter Support July 16, 2020 We have locked accounts that were compromised and will restore access to the original account owner only when we are certain we can do so securely.

The Twitter accounts of both The Register and your humble hack's brother Anthony Sharwood are verified by the avian network.

Twitter appears not to have been aware of the account takeover until the scammy tweets appeared.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/07/16/twitter_account_hijack_latest/