Twitter says spear-phishing attack on employees led to breach

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jul/30/twitter-breach-hackers-spear-phishing-attack

Thu 30 Jul 2020 22.58 EDT

Twitter said a large hack two weeks ago targeted a small number of employees through a phone “spear-phishing” attack.

The social media platform said the hackers targeted about 130 accounts, tweeted from 45, accessed the inboxes of 36, and were able to download Twitter data from seven.

Attackers also targeted specific employees who had access to account support tools, Twitter said. The company added it has since restricted access to its internal tools and systems.

•••••

Publicly available blockchain records show the apparent scammers received more than $100,000 worth of cryptocurrency.

The “spear-phishing” technique is a practice of sending emails ostensibly from a known or trusted sender in order to induce targeted individuals to reveal confidential information.