Twitter account was hacked

[maflynn]

So as the title goes, I opened up my phone last night and saw three emails from twitter in quick succession.
1. An unknown device logged into my account
2. The password was changed
3. the email was changed.

So after confirming the validity of the emails (making sure it wasn't phising). I opened a support ticket and it went as as well as I was expecting. The advice so far for my ticket was to log into my account and change my password

I think the ticket is still open, so we'll see what happens in the coming days, since Musk laid off most of the staff, I'm not expecting much.

Here's the thing, I was kicking around the idea of canceling the account. The last time I posted anything to twitter was back in 2016 and even then it was minor and inconsequential. I really don't use social media, particularly twitter, so having a twitter account isn't really a priority but I do feel annoyed that it was stolen so I'll see how the process goes.

 

[floral]

Oh.. Bummer. Thankfully, it wasn't of much use to you... maybe someone saw it was an abandoned account and decided it was an account worth stealing. Well anyways, as long as you don't share passwords between your accounts, you should be okay. ;D

 

[Scepticalscribe]

So as the title goes, I opened up my phone last night and saw three emails from twitter in quick succession.
1. An unknown device logged into my account
2. The password was changed
3. the email was changed.

So after confirming the validity of the emails (making sure it wasn't phising). I opened a support ticket and it went as as well as I was expecting. The advice so far for my ticket was to log into my account and change my password

I think the ticket is still open, so we'll see what happens in the coming days, since Musk laid off most of the staff, I'm not expecting much.

Here's the thing, I was kicking around the idea of canceling the account. The last time I posted anything to twitter was back in 2016 and even then it was minor and inconsequential. I really don't use social media, particularly twitter, so having a twitter account isn't really a priority but I do feel annoyed that it was stolen so I'll see how the process goes.

Unfortunately, from what I can see, the actual experience of using Twitter has deteriorated dramatically since the takeover by Mr Musk.

I wish I could say that what you describe in your post surprises me, but, unfortunately, it doesn't.

 

[maflynn]

Unfortunately, from what I can see, the actual experience of using Twitter has deteriorated dramatically since the takeover by Mr Musk.

I don't need an account, the only time I've gone into twitter the past 6 years or so, is just to see content. Maybe a message from a company, highlight from a sporting event, etc. I actually had to block Musk, because he changed the heurisitics to put his posts in everyone's feeds - I have no desire to see what he has to say. That was one of the major factors over my consideration of what to do with my account

Well anyways, as long as you don't share passwords between your accounts

Yeah I think that password was unique, but I'll be auditing my passwords in BitWarden making sure its not re-used

 

[floral]

I don't need an account, the only time I've gone into twitter the past 6 years or so, is just to see content. Maybe a message from a company, highlight from a sporting event, etc. I actually had to block Musk, because he changed the heurisitics to put his posts in everyone's feeds - I have no desire to see what he has to say. That was one of the major factors over my consideration of what to do with my account

I don't use twitter, but I hopped on and made an account just to see what the fuss is over how "bad it's gotten" and "just use Mastodon" and... Wow. I got absolutely blasted with tweets from Musk... Decade-old ancient internet funnies. Politics. Tesla. Tesla. Rockets. Tesla. Snarky replies. I don't hate the guy (as much as I'd like to) but this just takes the cake on how much of an ego he has...

 

[pshufd]

I used to use Twitter a lot more but my usage has decline about 95% since Musk took over. There was a lot more spam after he took over and my feed just had more and more crap that I wasn't interested in. I have since sharply curtailed posting to maybe one every couple of weeks and I follow about 10 people now and just visit a few times a week to see what they are saying.

I always use strong passwords and never use the same password twice; which means that I have a couple of hundred passwords to manage.

It sounds like you could just create a new account if you couldn't get your old one back.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I don't need an account, the only time I've gone into twitter the past 6 years or so, is just to see content. Maybe a message from a company, highlight from a sporting event, etc. I actually had to block Musk, because he changed the heurisitics to put his posts in everyone's feeds - I have no desire to see what he has to say. That was one of the major factors over my consideration of what to do with my account


Yeah I think that password was unique, but I'll be auditing my passwords in BitWarden making sure its not re-used

Actually, I have blocked that particular gentleman, as well, and yes, I had noticed that his posts were popping up all over the place, seeded throughout my feed.

I have found Twitter very useful when working abroad.

However, in recent months, unfortunately, some of the more thoughtful accounts that I followed seem to have taken themselves elsewhere.

 

[compwiz1202]

They're so dumb. If those things really happened, how would you change the PW? Is there any way other than an email?

 

[pshufd]

They're so dumb. If those things really happened, how would you change the PW? Is there any way other than an email?

Twitter has 2FA or at least they had it for free. I'm not sure what the current status of 2FA is.

 

[maflynn]

Twitter has 2FA or at least they had it for free. I'm not sure what the current status of 2FA is.

I think at this point you need to pay the sub, to get 2FA.

I'm resigned to the fact that I'll not get the account back, but I'm not really overly worked up over it. As I mentioned I barely created content, and I still can view tweets.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I think at this point you need to pay the sub, to get 2FA.

I'm resigned to the fact that I'll not get the account back, but I'm not really overly worked up over it. As I mentioned I barely created content, and I still can view tweets.

Pay a sub for 2FA?

Both petty and disgraceful.

Yet another depressing manifestation of the marked deterioration of Twitter.

 

[maflynn]

Pay a sub for 2FA?

So it would seem

 

[Scepticalscribe]

So it would seem
View attachment 2187048

Dear, dear.

Well, thank you for confirming this.

I could say that it is greedy, unnecessary, and quite pathetically petty, but, we know this already.

It is a real pity to observe what has happened on Twitter.

 

[KaliYoni]

I'm by no means a fan of Elon but it's actually a positive for most people that Twitter is trying to get users to move away from SMS 2FA. I'd write more but this article sums things up well for anybody interested:

Twitter gets rid of SMS 2FA for non-Blue members — What you need to do

Twitter has announced that it will no longer support SMS two-factor authentication unless you pay for a Twitter Blue subscription. However, there are more secure options for multi-factor authentication, which we describe below.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

 

[maflynn]

I'm by no means a fan of Elon but it's actually a positive for most people that Twitter is trying to get users to move away from SMS 2FA. I'd write more but this article sums things up well for anybody interested:

Twitter gets rid of SMS 2FA for non-Blue members — What you need to do

Twitter has announced that it will no longer support SMS two-factor authentication unless you pay for a Twitter Blue subscription. However, there are more secure options for multi-factor authentication, which we describe below.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

are the authenticator apps available for non-paying twitter users?

I don't know if they really did much communicating on how to better secure your account. While I'll not disagree that there are better methods to securing your account. It seems 2FA is a better option then no option. He also didn't do it out of concern for you or I, but rather his desire to not pay

 

[KaliYoni]

are the authenticator apps available for non-paying twitter users?

According to the relevant Help pages, yes.

 

[maflynn]

Looks like they restored my account. Woohoo, I'm not really pleased though it took way too long imo.

I also found the area where I you setup the authenticating app and set that up, and I used 1Password to setup a complex password.

Its not like I tweet, but I do access twitter to read and get info, so I'm pleased to have the account back

Edit: I forgot to mention that the hijacker used the account to spam crypto links. I deleted the tweets and while my account is currently restricted at least I have it.