Before Twitter Patch, Private Messages May Have Been Vulnerable

August 22, 2020

Written by wukovits

If you’re a Twitter user, you should know that the company recently announced that they had addressed a serious security flaw that could have allowed hackers to gain direct access to Direct or Private Messages users sent via Twitter.

If you seldom use that feature, then the impact to you would have been minimal in any case. If it’s something you use on a regular basis, then breathe a sigh of relief.

The company had this to say about the issue:

“We recently discovered and fixed a vulnerability in Twitter for Android related to an underlying Android OS security issue affecting OS versions 8 and 9. Our understanding is 96 percent of people using Twitter for Android already have an Android security patch installed that protects them from this vulnerability.

For the other 4 percent, this vulnerability could allow an attacker, through a malicious app installed on your device, to access private Twitter data on your device (like Direct Messages) by working around Android system permissions that protect against this.”

The company stressed that there’s no evidence this security flaw was ever exploited in the wild, and again, there’s nothing for you, as a Twitter user to do. The company has already handled it.

The discovery of the flaw though, comes on the heels of another recent, dramatic Twitter hack. In that hack, dozens of user accounts belonging to high-profile individuals were commandeered and used to bilk unsuspecting users out of more than $120,000 worth of Bitcoins.

If history is a good guide, and it usually is, this won’t be the last major security flaw the company finds and addresses in what remains of the year. Nonetheless, kudos to Twitter for finding the flaw and acting quickly to correct it before it could be exploited. Here’s hoping they can continue to find and correct them before the hackers can take advantage.

Used with permission from Article Aggregator

Bayou Tech

We provide solutions for your business. Find out how we can help.

Related Articles

Unlocking Small Business Success: The Impact of AI in a Digital Era

In the rapidly evolving business landscape, staying competitive necessitates embracing technological advancements. Artificial Intelligence (AI), once perceived as a luxury for larger enterprises, is now accessible to small businesses, offering new opportunities for...

Major Cyber Attack at OMV

Louisiana’s Office of Motor Vehicles (OMV) is one of a still undetermined number of government entities, major businesses, and organizations to be affected by an unprecedented Data Breach.There is no indication at this time that cyber attackers who breached MOVEit...

New Graphene Technology May Increase Hard Drive Storage

HDDs are old, well understood technology. They haven't changed much in recent years. In fact, increasingly, people are writing them off, preferring SSDs for their greater speed and smaller size, even though HDDs are less expensive. The clever folks at the University...

Send us a message

Your message was sent.