According to a report by security firm Symantec, nearly 2,500 Celebrity Twitter accounts, have been compromised and tweets with links to adult websites were sent out as spam from them. A number of high-profile accounts were reportedly caught in the attack. Some of those accounts belong to users who are widely known in their respective fields and beyond. Account belonging to the band Chromeo, an international journalist from The Telegraph, stand-up comedian Azeem Banatwala, Houston Texans wide receiver Cecil Shorts III, and the late New York Times reporter David Carr are examples of accounts that were compromised. According to the report by Symantec, the culprit would change the profile photo, biography, and full name of the account to promote adult sites. The attacker who may be responsible for these earns $4 for each person who signs up for the adult dating site.
The reports also point that if a user visited the compromised profile, they would see tweets that claim to offer free sign-ups to watch “hot shows” over webcam, or dates and sexual encounters. The cyber-security firm’s data also showed that 27 per cent of the compromised accounts were supposedly created in 2011. However, most of the older accounts had been abandoned by owners, with no new tweets in the last couple of years. Symantec has also suggested some steps for securing Twitter. They are as follows:
- Users must create a strong and unique password
- Users can use a password manager. Apps like LastPass, 1Password, Dashlane, KeePass, Password Safe, Norton Identity Safe are all considered good options
- Users can consider enabling Twitter’s Login Verification, which adds an extra layer of security and helps prevent unauthorised access
- Users should also report compromised accounts to Twitter by selecting the gear icon on such a profile and clicking on Report. From there, select the option “Their account may be hacked” to proceed