More than 1,000 Twitter employees had access to tools that allowed hackers to gain access to the accounts of Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and others during a massive security breach last week.
The attack, which Twitter said over the weekend was possible when the attackers “manipulated a small number of employees and used their credentials” to log in and provide access to 45 accounts, it could have been much worse, a former employee of The social network network told Reuters.
Even Twitter contractors at companies like Cognizant, which provides IT services, had the power to take over the most popular accounts on the site, according to the report.
Twitter declined to comment on that number, and did not say whether the number has decreased before or since the hack. The company is looking for a new chief security officer, who will work to better secure its systems and train employees on how to resist tricks from strangers, Twitter said.
The FBI and other law enforcement authorities are also investigating the attack, which hackers used to defraud Bitcoin.
According to Elliptic, a cryptocurrency analytics firm, more than 400 payments worth $ 121,000 flowed into three bitcoin addresses mentioned in the fake tweets. Most of the money came from Asia-based exchanges, including a one-time payment worth $ 42,000, but about a quarter of the revenue probably came from American victims, Elliptic said.
The hackers reportedly paid a Twitter employee to help them carry out the attack.
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