Security News
Twitter has launched its 'Encrypted Direct Messages' feature allowing paid Twitter Blue subscribers to send end-to-end encrypted messages to other users on the platform. End-to-end encrypted DMs on Twitter have been a sought-after and massively requested feature that was teased and retracted in 2018.
Twitter is officially beginning to roll out support for encrypted direct messages on the platform, more than six months after its chief executive Elon Musk confirmed plans for the feature in November 2022. The "Phase 1" of the initiative will appear as separate conversations alongside existing direct messages on users' inboxes.
Twitter has rolled out some quality of life updates for direct messages on the platform, and CEO Elon Musk reckons the site is to start encrypting DMs, beginning today, without providing proof that's the case. In a tweet last night, Twitter Support announced that a couple of well-trodden DM features from other platforms were being added to Twitter.
Joseph James O'Connor, aka 'PlugwalkJoke,' has pleaded guilty to multiple cybercrime offenses, including SIM swapping attacks, cyberstalking, computer hacking, and hijacking high-profile accounts on Twitter and TikTok. O'Connor admitted his role in the hack that impacted Twitter in June 2020, where he and his three co-conspirators gained access to the accounts of high-profile individuals such as Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, Binance, Apple, Uber, and Bitcoin.
A 23-year-old British citizen has confessed to "Multiple schemes" involving computer crimes, including playing a part in the July 2020 Twitter attack that saw the accounts of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Kanye West, and former President Barack Obama hijacked by an unidentified crew. The 2020 Twitter attack happened when blue ticks still meant "Verified account" and was accomplished using social engineering just as the COVID-19 pandemic was starting to gain traction.
A U.K. national has pleaded guilty in connection with the July 2020 Twitter attack affecting numerous high-profile accounts and defrauding other users of the platform. Joseph James O'Connor, who also went by the online alias PlugwalkJoe, admitted to "His role in cyberstalking and multiple schemes that involve computer hacking, including the July 2020 hack of Twitter," the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Twitter has finally admitted a "Security incident" caused some users' semi-private Twitter Circle tweets to show up on others' timelines. "In April 2023, a security incident that may have allowed users outside of your Twitter Circle to see tweets that should have otherwise been limited to the Circle to which you were posting," the email stated.
Twitter disclosed that a 'security incident' caused private tweets sent to Twitter Circles to show publicly to users outside of the Circle. Twitter Circle is a feature released in August 2022 that allows users to send tweets to a small circle of people, promising to keep them private from the public.
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Update 5/1/23: Title updated to reflect this bug only allowed the user to see their legacy check. A silly Twitter bug allowed previously-verified accounts to add their legacy 'Blue Check' back to their profile for free.