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Twitter has determined that hackers accessed the personal data of up to eight non-verified accounts affected by a cryptocurrency-related scam earlier this week.
The state of play: The social media company said late Friday that 130 accounts were targeted, and only 45 successfully breached. The hackers downloaded user data through a tool intended to give an account owner a summary of their Twitter details and activity.
- Twitter has not identified the affected users.
- The company noted that hackers exploited some employees, stating: "The attackers successfully manipulated a small number of employees and used their credentials to access Twitter's internal systems, including getting through our two-factor protections."
- "As of now, we know that they accessed tools only available to our internal support teams..." the company said.
Twitter has determined the hackers were not state-actors, but a "group of young people" who connected over an interest in "owning early or unusual screen names," the New York Times reported.