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If the details about how these accounts were taken over are true, that an employee changed email addresses of these accounts to email accounts controlled by the
by ciarannolan 6y ago
If the details about how these accounts were taken over are true, that an employee changed email addresses of these accounts to email accounts controlled by the attackers, this is going to turn out to be a massive breach.
I'm thinking specifically of direct messages that could have been scooped up before they went public and started tweeting on these accounts.
- gundmc 6y agoBased on what we know, it does sound like the attackers had full access to the accounts. That's a really interesting point about direct messages. It makes it all the more interesting that Obama and Biden and were both targets with the upcoming election. Wonder if those will start showing up on WikiLeaks again.
- s5300 6y agoDoes anybody on Hacker news seriously believe that the account of Biden or Obama actually send messages privately on Twitter? They most certainly don't. I have no idea why that fact is not obvious to some. Trump had two liked tweets for all of time back from like, 2012. Around 2017 or so a group realized this and bought or otherwise messed with the site the liked tweets linked to and made them have pictures making jokes about trump. It took more than a year for anybody to give a shit enough to take down. They don't use the site for anything more than direct statements/retweets.
- gundmc 6y agoAgreed. I don't think it would turn up any skeletons, more of the implication if this breach was in any way politically motivated given our recent election meddling.
- ciarannolan 6y agoI definitely don't think Obama/Biden/others would DM. But Elon? Some of these bitcoin exchanges? Maybe. How about accounts that were accessed (if any) that never blasted out the bitcoin tweet, but had their messages harvested?
- filmgirlcw 6y agoElon definitely DMs.
- hyperpape 6y agoI agree with you. Also, I really hope there’s a set of users whose accounts cannot have new devices connected without special authorization, and if so, you’d have Biden, Obama and Trump on that list. Edit: 5 minutes after posting, I saw Obama and Biden were on the list of people hit, and I missed it in the early reports. Unbelievable.
- chillfox 6y agoThere's no need for them to actually have any messages. With a highly public hack like this one can simply manufacture messages afterwards and claim they came from the hack. Most people would believe it.
- manquer 6y agoIt is not required for them to send , people could have sent to them sensitive stuff. A potential whistleblower , somebody having dirt on opposition . It could be worse , even if you didn’t respond the fact that someone let’s say a foreign government or a spy or terrorist reached out to you can played in media they way your opponents want it