Government officials are now coming up with ways of hacking personal Twitter accounts. The act is illegal and nobody is above the law even the government. Following reports about government hacking Twitter accounts, the social media company warned some users about the act.
State sponsored actors are trying to steal users phone numbers, e-mail addresses and IP addresses. Twitter sent emails to different users warning that hackers may be trying to obtain phone numbers, email addresses and IP addresses.
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“At this time, we have no evidence they obtained your account information, but we’re actively investigating this matter,” according to Coldhak, a Canada-based nonprofit organization that posted a copy of the letter it received on Twitter. “We wish we had more we could share, but we don’t have any additional information we can provide at this time.”
Security researchers and journalists tweeted about receiving the warning from Twitter. The social network sent mails to advise users to take proper precautions to safeguard their personal information, including offering a link to information on Tor, software that allows for anonymous communication on the Internet.
Previously, Facebook and Google sent similar emails to their users. The continued act by government amplifies the fact that nations are using sponsored hackers to steal government information from people and Intellectual Property. Five months ago, a group known as The Hacking Team was exposed. The team sells surveillance tools to governments and intelligence agencies.
Recently, NASA raised a concern on the fact that hacking is becoming worse. “Cyber threats to U.S. national and economic security are increasing in frequency, scale, sophistication and severity of impact,” U.S. national intelligence director James Clapper warned the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Another popular group known as Syrian Electronic Army is growing very fast. The hacking group supports the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has claimed responsibility for several hacks of news sites and company Web sites. The group hacked their way into BBC, The Guardian, NPR and CBS accounts.
Few weeks ago, a popular hacking group declared war on ISIS. Besides fighting terrorists, the group attacks governments. In 2011, the group attacked Tunisia following reports of censorship during the Arab Spring uprisings. Majorly, the group has users who hack and spread leaked information.
Government hacking Twitter accounts is taking shape since social media has a voice for the people and government officials want to take advantage of that.
