Reporters are beginning to piece together the behind-the-scenes events of Twitter’s unprecedented attack on Wednesday almost as fast as official investigators themselves. And the clearest idea of what could have happened two days ago, when approximately 130 accounts were compromised using internal company tools, is courtesy of The New York Times this afternoon.
Reporters Nathaniel Popper and Kate Conger tell the stories of four people involved in the hack and how exactly it got out of control and resulted in the takeover of some of the most sensitive and high-profile account platforms.
The times The report says the attack dates back to a group of hackers who congregate online at OGusers.com, a username-sharing community where people buy and sell coveted online identifiers, usually consisting of letters or numbers. unique. Two featured users, who The times Identified by the online nicknames “hahaha” and “always so anxious”, they came into contact with someone they had never heard of before, who only identified themselves as “Kirk”.
This Kirk somehow had access to Twitter’s internal administrative tools, software so powerful that it could apparently take control of almost any account, according to the report. One of the most amazing details is how Kirk says he got the login credentials: by copying them from a message posted on an internal Twitter Slack channel, the two hackers tell The times. It’s unclear at this point how Kirk allegedly accessed Twitter’s Slack, if that’s where he got the login information. Previous reports of Motherboard Such hackers may have gained access to the internal tool by bribing an existing employee, although the truth in this case is unclear.
The times He then paints a fascinating picture of how Kirk’s alleged access to Twitter systems skyrocketed, starting with Kirk’s taking of short account names like @yy @ 6 and, over the course of many hours, becoming what it is. became the most devastating hack Twitter has ever seen
OGusers hackers spoke to The times to clear their names and minimize their participation in the attack; They say Kirk was the mastermind who decided on his own to start attacking the accounts of people like Elon Musk and Joe Biden, and his identity and motivations remain unknown, according to the report. It is a truly amazing report that everyone should read. And if it finally turns out to be accurate once Twitter talks more openly about the results of the investigation, it will certainly have lasting effects on Twitter’s internal security and the way high-profile individuals and companies use the platform.
