Twitter Admits Hackers Read Private Messages Of 36 VIP Users in Massive Breach

By Staff, Agencies

Hackers gained access to the private messages of at least 36 high-profile Twitter accounts targeted in an unprecedented security breach earlier this month, the company announced, among them at least one elected official.

“We believe that for up to 36 of the 130 targeted accounts, the attackers accessed the [direct message] inbox, including 1 elected official in the Netherlands,” Twitter said in a statement on Wednesday, without naming the office-holder.

The company maintains it has so far seen “no indication” that messages of any other current or former political figures were compromised in the attack.

The social media giant previously revealed that the hackers behind the massive July 15 breach – which swept up the accounts of billionaires, corporations and even former US President Barack Obama, among other high-profile targets – accessed “personal information” such as email addresses and phone numbers. The company says its “forensic investigation” is ongoing, however, suggesting it could still turn up other sensitive information seen by the hackers.

In what’s been described as the platform’s largest-ever security breach, the attackers used an internal administrative tool to hijack 130 accounts, tweeting deceptive bitcoin offers from each in an effort to scam users out of cryptocurrency.

While the scheme apparently paid off, bilking more than $118,000 in bitcoin from hapless victims, it remains unclear how the hackers accessed the internal employees-only tool. According to sources cited by Motherboard, they had help from a Twitter insider, who either granted the attackers access to the tool or took over the accounts on their behalf.