Despite a reported fix, Twitter accounts still vulnerable, say experts
Despite claiming a fix, the British based security firm researchers that earlier hijacked accounts of several journalists and celebrities on Twitter have said that there are still loopholes that persist in the social media platform.
Last week, Insinia Security had said that it had hijacked a number of celebrities account that includes Louis Theroux, Eamonn Holmes, Simon Calder and Saira Khan among others.
The Telegraph reported, in order to take control of the accounts, researchers of the company used fake SMS verification that appeared as if they belonged to the account owners.
On Friday, a Twitter spokesperson told reporters that it had "resolved a bug that allowed certain accounts with a connected UK phone number to be targeted by SMS spoofing."
Gizmodo reported on Monday that the hackers who posted unauthorised tweets to celebrity accounts had appeared to reproduce the experiment after Twitter made its claim.
There was a simple method that allowed researchers at Insinia Security to send tweets, follow and unfollow people, retweet and like tweets and direct messages, according to the company which warned that the vulnerability could be easily exploited by nation states, hackers and organised crime groups.
Insinia warned in a blog post saying that the vulnerability could be used to "spread fake news and disinformation via influential celebrities and journalists".
Insinia also recommended that users should remove their contact/phone numbers from Twitter until the bug is fixed.
"Twitter should completely remove this functionality (SMS verification) as users rely on their phone added to account for two-factor authentication," Insinia said.
(With IANS inputs)
