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Twitter Says Hackers Used Phone Phishing to Gain Access to High Profile Accounts

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Twitter said the hackers behind the attack on accounts of public figures used telephone phishing to break into the system.
Sputnik

“The social engineering that occurred on July 15, 2020, targeted a small number of employees through a phone spear-phishing attack,” the social media company said on its blog.

Earlier, Twitter announced the strengthening of security measures during the investigation of the hacker attack, significantly restricting access to its internal systems.

"Our investigation is ongoing, and we are working with the appropriate authorities to ensure that the people responsible for this attack are identified," the company said.

According to Twitter, a total of 130 social media accounts were hacked, 45 of which were used to post.

The company previously reported that hackers entered the internal systems using the credentials of a "small number" of employees.

Among the victims of the hack were former US Vice President Joe Biden, ex-President Barack Obama, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, billionaires Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg and Warren Buffett, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, rapper Kanye West, among many others. The hackers used the account to call on followers to send money to a bitcoin account.

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