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More than 1k people at Twitter had ability to aid hack of accounts

reuters.com

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Re: More than 1k people at Twitter had ability to aid hack of accounts

#161

Post by M2Ys4U »

nextlevelwizard wrote: post #160

> implication that a hostile government might be able to cause even greater havoc. it is stuff like this that make me question the whole article. like yes, obviously this was no "hostile" government since they were just scamming for some pocket change. but also how exactly would this hostile government create havoc with twitter?

There are so many government officials on Twitter, and causing any number of them to tweet something plausible but untrue could be a big deal - from moving markets to moving troops.

Just imagine if Donald Trump's account tweeted that Antifa should be shot on sight. I'm certain people would die because of that.

Or, perhaps slightly less plausibly, that Boris Johnson tweeted that he's had enough and is abandoning negotiations with the EU. That would cause a frantic reaction from the markets before any official statement could be put out.

Re: More than 1k people at Twitter had ability to aid hack of accounts

#162

Post by necovek »

chrononaut wrote: post #152
joosters wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds just like the 'real names' policy that Google and Facebook have tried before. That never made any difference to hate speech, racism and intolerance, so why do you think it will magically make Twitter better?

I can imagine at minimum this would help with bots. Considering the problems you state are actual systematic issues we have in our society I would expect that the verification process should not be perceived as working towards solving those.

I have no idea how comment bots run today, but for anyone only slightly invested, it would mean one additional hurdle (get accounts for actual people who are not using the service), but not a blocker (like captchas: they mostly serve to annoy regular users).

Re: More than 1k people at Twitter had ability to aid hack of accounts

#163

Post by necovek »

0-O-0 wrote: post #147
bigiain wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, how about we dial the hyperbole down a bit, to "accounts universally known to be a primary mechanisms for announcement of international policy by the leader of a country which has started 12 'armed conflicts' in the last 20 years (or 14 if you count them doing it twice in Iraq and Lybia)"? I find it quite horrifying that elected officials are legally allowed to use totally unaccountable social media platforms t…

What are our options here? Some *.gov website that public isn't going to read?

That's on the public, ain't it?

Next thing, some will demand that all communications with the government happen over twitter too (or another private entity), thus forcing people to have accounts on them.

Re: More than 1k people at Twitter had ability to aid hack of accounts

#164

Post by anonymfus »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #155
chrononaut wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can imagine at minimum this would help with bots. Considering the problems you state are actual systematic issues we have in our society I would expect that the verification process should not be perceived as working towards solving those.

It would also exclude venerable people which is the problem with the real name idea

We can imagine a system where twitter checks that person is a real unique human but does not use their personal data for anything else.

Re: More than 1k people at Twitter had ability to aid hack of accounts

#165

Post by uallo »

I created a Twitter account close to a month ago and it was immediately suspended because it "appears to have exhibited automated behavior that violates the Twitter Rules". Well it did not really do anything yet, even less so anything against their rules. The account is still suspended despite multiple appeals and messages.

At the same time, dozens (hundreds?) of verified accounts get taken over. I think their fraud detection systems are total crap.

Re: More than 1k people at Twitter had ability to aid hack of accounts

#166

Post by madeofpalk »

uallo wrote: post #165

I created a Twitter account close to a month ago and it was immediately suspended because it "appears to have exhibited automated behavior that violates the Twitter Rules". Well it did not really do anything yet, even less so anything against their rules. The account is still suspended despite multiple appeals and messages. At the same time, dozens (hundreds?) of verified accounts get taken over. I think their fraud…

Was it actually suspended, or did they just need you to verify with phone number?

Re: More than 1k people at Twitter had ability to aid hack of accounts

#167

Post by uallo »

madeofpalk wrote: post #166
uallo wrote: post #165

I created a Twitter account close to a month ago and it was immediately suspended because it "appears to have exhibited automated behavior that violates the Twitter Rules". Well it did not really do anything yet, even less so anything against their rules. The account is still suspended despite multiple appeals and messages. At the same time, dozens (hundreds?) of verified accounts get taken over. I think their fraud…

Was it actually suspended, or did they just need you to verify with phone number?

It says "Your account is suspended and is not permitted to send Tweets". Why would they need to verify a phone number? I did not give them one.

Re: More than 1k people at Twitter had ability to aid hack of accounts

#168

Post by spiralx »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #158
throwaway744678 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parent was probably referring to GDPR, which (IIRC) mandates that employees only have access to the information strictly necessary for their position. You doctor's secretary should only have access to your appointment schedule and phone number, not your medical condition.

Actually not in the UK receptionists triage patients as a extreme covid risk (trasnpaltee) I get priority

Well yes, being able to give priority to at-risk patients would fall under necessary use. I doubt the receptionist has your actual medical history, but they would certainly see an indicator of your risk category.

Re: More than 1k people at Twitter had ability to aid hack of accounts

#169

Post by theduder99 »

jobigoud wrote: post #94
akersten wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly it will depend on who you bank with, but JPMorganChase has 250,000 employees[1]. If even 1% of them are customer service representatives, bank tellers, or in other positions with direct access to your account (which I hope we can agree is an underestimate), that's 2,500 people right there. [1]: https://www.google.com/search?q=chase+employees

And they all have access to all accounts? I would imagine only a bank teller from the appropriate branch would have access to this branch's accounts.

Maybe back in the 1960s it was like that. Doesn't matter which branch I open an account at. I can walk into any branch and the teller should be able to pull up my info.

Re: More than 1k people at Twitter had ability to aid hack of accounts

#170

Post by ecmascript »

uallo wrote: post #165

I created a Twitter account close to a month ago and it was immediately suspended because it "appears to have exhibited automated behavior that violates the Twitter Rules". Well it did not really do anything yet, even less so anything against their rules. The account is still suspended despite multiple appeals and messages. At the same time, dozens (hundreds?) of verified accounts get taken over. I think their fraud…

They do this for all new accounts. It's a way to harvest phone numbers from unsuspecting victims of this surveillance.

It doesn't matter from what ip, machine or whatever you register. It will automatically get suspended because I think they've realized it's easier to force people to enter their phone numbers in "protection" after they just created an account rather than to just ask for it during signup.

Less questions are asked. I wrote a blog post on my now deleted blog, but discussions on HN was here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19487304

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