Security News

A new sort of Windows nightmare, this one not involving printers. Another new sort of Windows nightmare, also with no printers.

Historically, Twitter allows users to create a new account using a phone number or email address and a password. Google.com, allowing you to use your Google account to register a new Twitter account.

In contrast, the Twitter hack we're referring to ultimately led to the takeover of just 45 accounts. The suspects were alleged to have previous form in hacking and trading in so-called OG accounts, where OG is short for original gangster.

While some high-profile Twitter accounts were successfully hijacked last year despite having 2FA enabled after attackers gained access to internal admin systems, you should still toggle on 2FA to be protected against less-sophisticated hacking attempts. Despite the meager rate of adoption, Twitter saw a growing number of users who enable 2FA to secure their accounts from hijacking attempts, with an increase of 9.1% from July to December 2020.

A British man has been charged in the United States in connection with a Twitter hack last summer that compromised the accounts of prominent politicians, celebrities and technology moguls, the Justice Department said Wednesday. Joseph O'Connor, 22, was arrested in the coastal resort town of Estepona, Spain, on an arrest warrant accusing him of involvement in a July 2020 hack of more than 130 accounts, and of hacks that prosecutors said took over TikTok and Snapchat accounts, including "One of the most viewed and followed" TikTok stars.

A U.K. citizen has been arrested in the Spanish town of Estepona over his alleged involvement in the July 2020 hack of Twitter, resulting in the compromise of 130 high-profile accounts. Joseph O'Connor, 22, has been charged with intentionally accessing a computer without authorization and obtaining information from a protected computer, as well as for making extortive communications.

A fourth suspect has been arrested today for his role in the Twitter hack last year that gave attackers access to the company's internal network exposing high-profile accounts to hijacking. The United States Department of Justice announced that Joseph O'Connor, a 22-year old UK national, was detained in Spain on several charges related to the Twitter hack in July 2020.

The Spanish National Police have, at the request of America, arrested UK citizen Joseph O'Connor in Estepona, Spain, in connection with the July 2020 takeover of more than 130 Twitter accounts. The US Department of Justice said that, in addition to the alleged Twitter account joyride, O'Connor, 22, has been charged in a federal district court in northern California with computer intrusions tied to the commandeering of TikTok and Snapchat user accounts.

Rob Joyce, the director of cybersecurity at the National Security Agency, on Thursday announced that his role now has an official Twitter account. Joyce has promised to share "Insights and information about what we are up to." His first tweet after announcing the creation of the account informed followers about the cybersecurity advisory released by the NSA in collaboration with other security agencies to describe a global brute force attack campaign attributed to Russia.

Twitter this week announced that it allows users to enroll security keys and use them as the only form of two-factor authentication to secure their accounts. "Security keys offer the strongest protection for your Twitter account because they have built-in protections to ensure that even if a key is used on a phishing site, the information shared can't be used to access your account," Twitter explains.