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Hacked Twitter Accounts Post Swastikas, Pro-Erdogan Content

92 points by Avalyst 10y ago

antingate2 10y ago
Swastika is a ancient Hindu symbol, why isn't there an emoji for this?
r721 10y ago
TheCounter‏: "We're aware that our service was hacked and have started an investigation into the matter.We've already taken measures to contain such abuse" https://twitter.com/thecounter/status/841935867925139458 https://twitter.com/thecounter/status/841935867925139458 "This isn't TwitterCounter's first time. It's happened before. If you rely on it, it's time to pick better tools." https://twitter.com/FR314/status/841925814417555460 https://twitter.com/FR314/status/841925814417555460 http://press.twittercounter.com/139716-twitter-counter-accounts-secured-following-a-hack http://press.twittercounter.com/139716-twitter-counter-accou... UPD TheCounter‏: "Assuming this abuse is indeed done using our system, we’ve blocked all ability to post tweets and changed our Twitter app key." https://twitter.com/thecounter/status/841941624238284800 https://twitter.com/thecounter/status/841941624238284800
- simias 10y ago
  What does this service do exactly? Why does it need to have write access to the account if it's only a stat thing?
  - dodge141415 10y ago
    Looks like they run a followers scam as well with the promoted twitter account. How can they guarantee 1% views conversion. They probably make accounts that sign up for their service secretly follow the promoted accounts.
  - Swizec 10y ago
    Growth hacking. It announces what your count is when you use it the first time. Or maybe all times? I forget, it's been a while. For one reason or another, my account doesn't seem to have done anything shady yet. Pretty sure I've used twitter counter in the past.
  - r721 10y ago
    I don't know - I don't use it myself. I think many apps require write access to advertise themselves with occasional tweets.
- simonb 10y ago
  It doesn't seem to be limited to just TheCounter https://twitter.com/desantis/status/841952242789974021 https://twitter.com/desantis/status/841952242789974021
lawless123 10y ago
Someone is very interested in pushing people towards far right pro-kremlim parties in Europe right before elections..
- raverbashing 10y ago
  Oh I wonder who would that be... Doesn't seem like a very advanced hack to be honest, and "twitter services" are a constant source of account compromises
  - distances 10y ago
    To be honest I don't find this kind of vague hinting to be at all constructive in discussions. I would greatly prefer if people either voiced their opinions clearly or kept them private.
    - lawless123 10y ago
      Ok to be clear , right before multiple European elections , Putins new pal Erdogan is inciting riots, calling people Nazis because they didn't want to host his rallies for a domestic Turkish issue. Obviously these have some domestic benefit for Erdogan but also for far right European parties, many of which already have some financial links to Russia. http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/erdogan-and-putin-take-another-step-towards-regional-partnership-1462334051 http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/erdogan-and-putin-take-...
      - afarrell 10y ago
        > Putin's new pal Erdogan Wait what?
        imron 10y ago
        Didn't you see the news? Everything that works out for the right and against the left is a Russian plot orchestrated by Putin. The eighties called and decided to lend their foreign policy to the democrats this time.
psion_ 10y ago
Every now and then I end up helping someone I know out with their twitter strategy or something on their PC. The number of full access 3rd party integrations people willingly sign up to and the number of browser plugins people happily add always shocks me. Part of the problem is that getting your account hacked is such a widespread problem that people just accept it and there isn't much incentive for developers to invest heavily in preventing poor user decisions that exacerbate the situation. Ideally developers of services like Twitter - and all those random SaaS apps you pipeline important business information to - should invest in: * Better language about granting access rights up front. Chrome is always impressing me with their approach to language on HTTPS warning dialogs etc. Anyone allowing API access should spend lots of time crafting how they explain their token system to users. * Requiring manual re-confirmation of access rights for integrations after a certain period of no use. * Detecting unusual access patterns for integrations - usually this integration posts once per day per account, now it's posting continually. Hopefully there are machine learning startup teams working on this. I'm sure at least some companies would care enough to send a log of 3rd party integration interactions to a machine learning startup and receive alerts of anonymous behaviour back. (Yes, I know the irony of suggesting the answer to excessive 3rd party integration is a startup that provides anomaly detection as a service - but I doubt most small services offering integrations would be able to engineer a strong system like this...)
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
camus2 10y ago
Is Twitter Counter related to Twitter? if not, how come they are authorized to use the word Twitter in their product name?
- askmike 10y ago
  Not related, but they have licensed the name (also have been around for very long).
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
magickbirdy 10y ago
...or maybe someone is trying to defame Erdogan by associating Erdogan with Nazi?
- Algent 10y ago
  He is pushing for a referendum that remind Europe of how Nazi Germany started. To "defame" someone it must be false or attack his honour. This hack is just going along the lines he traced.
- Xylakant 10y ago
  Not taking any stance on the matter of who's the hacker and what are their intentions, but Erdogan has compared the German and Dutch administration Nazi multiple times by now in public speeches, so the tweets content are pretty much his stance boiled down to 140 chars.
- raverbashing 10y ago
  Nothing like a throwaway account supporting a gigantic crap spewer At best a troll
- Mikeb85 10y ago
  As if Erdogan needs to be defamed... He's doing a fine job all on his own.
nirav72 10y ago
Who ever that was, just handed Geet Wilder's the election. Well played.
- mvdwoord 10y ago
  Oh please, just like "the Russians" handed Trump his win?
- Doxin 10y ago
  Geert isn't going to 'win' the election. Unless he manages to fill the government entirely with only his party, which is exceedingly unlikely, there's no one who will want to co-govern with the man.
- cr1895 10y ago
  >Who ever that was, just handed Geet Wilder's the election. Well played I'm not sure you understand the mechanics of the election in the NL. The parties campain for seats in the Tweede Kamer, and no party will win a clear majority of seats. Therefore a coalition government will have to be formed among the leading parties. The other leading parties have refused to work with Wilders due to his anti-Muslim statements, and recent polls have shown fewer expected seats for the PVV. In no way has the election been handed to PVV.
philfrasty 10y ago
So they basically had already access to all those accounts for presumably a long time (months?) just to make that one coordinated post today? Kinda scary...the amount of effort put in to make this possible as well as the intended (unknown? NL?) goal from the attackers POV.
arianvanp 10y ago
Yes lets hijack AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL to prove our point that We are not the facsists but the Dutch are... that will totally work...
- ojilles 10y ago
  Sesame Street, too, just to clinch the deal.

92 points by Avalyst 10y ago

Swastika is a ancient Hindu symbol, why isn't there an emoji for this?

r721 10y ago

TheCounter‏: "We're aware that our service was hacked and have started an investigation into the matter.We've already taken measures to contain such abuse" https://twitter.com/thecounter/status/841935867925139458 https://twitter.com/thecounter/status/841935867925139458 "This isn't TwitterCounter's first time. It's happened before. If you rely on it, it's time to pick better tools." https://twitter.com/FR314/status/841925814417555460 https://twitter.com/FR314/status/841925814417555460 http://press.twittercounter.com/139716-twitter-counter-accounts-secured-following-a-hack http://press.twittercounter.com/139716-twitter-counter-accou... UPD TheCounter‏: "Assuming this abuse is indeed done using our system, we’ve blocked all ability to post tweets and changed our Twitter app key." https://twitter.com/thecounter/status/841941624238284800 https://twitter.com/thecounter/status/841941624238284800

simias 10y ago
What does this service do exactly? Why does it need to have write access to the account if it's only a stat thing?
- dodge141415 10y ago
  Looks like they run a followers scam as well with the promoted twitter account. How can they guarantee 1% views conversion. They probably make accounts that sign up for their service secretly follow the promoted accounts.
- Swizec 10y ago
  Growth hacking. It announces what your count is when you use it the first time. Or maybe all times? I forget, it's been a while. For one reason or another, my account doesn't seem to have done anything shady yet. Pretty sure I've used twitter counter in the past.
- r721 10y ago
  I don't know - I don't use it myself. I think many apps require write access to advertise themselves with occasional tweets.
simonb 10y ago
It doesn't seem to be limited to just TheCounter https://twitter.com/desantis/status/841952242789974021 https://twitter.com/desantis/status/841952242789974021

lawless123 10y ago

Someone is very interested in pushing people towards far right pro-kremlim parties in Europe right before elections..

raverbashing 10y ago
Oh I wonder who would that be... Doesn't seem like a very advanced hack to be honest, and "twitter services" are a constant source of account compromises
- distances 10y ago
  To be honest I don't find this kind of vague hinting to be at all constructive in discussions. I would greatly prefer if people either voiced their opinions clearly or kept them private.
  - lawless123 10y ago
    Ok to be clear , right before multiple European elections , Putins new pal Erdogan is inciting riots, calling people Nazis because they didn't want to host his rallies for a domestic Turkish issue. Obviously these have some domestic benefit for Erdogan but also for far right European parties, many of which already have some financial links to Russia. http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/erdogan-and-putin-take-another-step-towards-regional-partnership-1462334051 http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/erdogan-and-putin-take-...
    - afarrell 10y ago
      > Putin's new pal Erdogan Wait what?
      - imron 10y ago
        Didn't you see the news? Everything that works out for the right and against the left is a Russian plot orchestrated by Putin. The eighties called and decided to lend their foreign policy to the democrats this time.

psion_ 10y ago

Every now and then I end up helping someone I know out with their twitter strategy or something on their PC. The number of full access 3rd party integrations people willingly sign up to and the number of browser plugins people happily add always shocks me. Part of the problem is that getting your account hacked is such a widespread problem that people just accept it and there isn't much incentive for developers to invest heavily in preventing poor user decisions that exacerbate the situation. Ideally developers of services like Twitter - and all those random SaaS apps you pipeline important business information to - should invest in: * Better language about granting access rights up front. Chrome is always impressing me with their approach to language on HTTPS warning dialogs etc. Anyone allowing API access should spend lots of time crafting how they explain their token system to users. * Requiring manual re-confirmation of access rights for integrations after a certain period of no use. * Detecting unusual access patterns for integrations - usually this integration posts once per day per account, now it's posting continually. Hopefully there are machine learning startup teams working on this. I'm sure at least some companies would care enough to send a log of 3rd party integration interactions to a machine learning startup and receive alerts of anonymous behaviour back. (Yes, I know the irony of suggesting the answer to excessive 3rd party integration is a startup that provides anomaly detection as a service - but I doubt most small services offering integrations would be able to engineer a strong system like this...)

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

camus2 10y ago

Is Twitter Counter related to Twitter? if not, how come they are authorized to use the word Twitter in their product name?

askmike 10y ago
Not related, but they have licensed the name (also have been around for very long).

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

magickbirdy 10y ago

...or maybe someone is trying to defame Erdogan by associating Erdogan with Nazi?

Algent 10y ago
He is pushing for a referendum that remind Europe of how Nazi Germany started. To "defame" someone it must be false or attack his honour. This hack is just going along the lines he traced.
Xylakant 10y ago
Not taking any stance on the matter of who's the hacker and what are their intentions, but Erdogan has compared the German and Dutch administration Nazi multiple times by now in public speeches, so the tweets content are pretty much his stance boiled down to 140 chars.
raverbashing 10y ago
Nothing like a throwaway account supporting a gigantic crap spewer At best a troll
Mikeb85 10y ago
As if Erdogan needs to be defamed... He's doing a fine job all on his own.

nirav72 10y ago

Who ever that was, just handed Geet Wilder's the election. Well played.

mvdwoord 10y ago
Oh please, just like "the Russians" handed Trump his win?
Doxin 10y ago
Geert isn't going to 'win' the election. Unless he manages to fill the government entirely with only his party, which is exceedingly unlikely, there's no one who will want to co-govern with the man.
cr1895 10y ago
>Who ever that was, just handed Geet Wilder's the election. Well played I'm not sure you understand the mechanics of the election in the NL. The parties campain for seats in the Tweede Kamer, and no party will win a clear majority of seats. Therefore a coalition government will have to be formed among the leading parties. The other leading parties have refused to work with Wilders due to his anti-Muslim statements, and recent polls have shown fewer expected seats for the PVV. In no way has the election been handed to PVV.

philfrasty 10y ago

So they basically had already access to all those accounts for presumably a long time (months?) just to make that one coordinated post today? Kinda scary...the amount of effort put in to make this possible as well as the intended (unknown? NL?) goal from the attackers POV.

arianvanp 10y ago

Yes lets hijack AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL to prove our point that We are not the facsists but the Dutch are... that will totally work...

ojilles 10y ago
Sesame Street, too, just to clinch the deal.