Twitter Starts Warning Users of State-Sponsored Cyber-Attacks

[steven36]

Twitter becomes the third social network to warn users of state-sponsored attacks, after Google and Facebook

From hacking by individuals to state sponsored cyber attacks, we have come a long way in cyber security. In fact, state sponsored cyber attacks are fast outpacing the traditional cyber criminals in today’s world. Facebook and Google have already started warning their users about nation sponsored cyber attacks and now Twitter became the third tech company to follow suit.

 

Yesterday, a few Twitter users tweeted out an email they got from the social network’s security staff, in which they were warned of cyber-attacks on their account from what the team suspected to be a state-sponsored group.

 

Twitter has been subject of hack attacks from such state sponsored entities because it hosts accounts of thousands of journalists, political dissidents and other opponents. As said above, until now, Google and more recently Facebook have been the only two companies that have warned users of possible state-sponsored attacks.

 

Twitter said it was investigating the attack but did not provide details of the origin. Yesterday we listed the state sponsored hacking groups and we know for sure that only China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and the US employ such groups on a larger scale but it is also known that smaller countries also sponsor such hacking groups. These are usually the ones with an oppressive government, such as some Middle Eastern, African, and South American regimes.

 

Most of the people targeted by the attack are known activists and security researchers, and most are living in western countries.

 

Quote

 

Just received this email from Twitter suggesting my account may have been targeted by state-sponsored actors. pic.twitter.com/QLcCzsHphw

— Runa A. Sandvik (@runasand) December 11, 2015

 

 

 

In its message, Twitter recommended users to stay safe by using Tor for most of their online activities, but also consulting the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s “Protecting Yourself on Social Networks” guidelines.

 

Quote

 

We received a warning from @twitter today stating we may be "targeted by state-sponsored actors" pic.twitter.com/oZm83eVFC5

— coldhak (@coldhakca) December 11, 2015

 

 

Source

[Sylence]

Twitter blocks and warns users when they retweeted Mr.Khamenei's tweets. the tweets that were about fighting terrorism and about the youth in the west. it was the truth and of course, against the west's interests because it could awake people who are deeply asleep.

Don't ever say you have freedom again

 

Source: http://bit.ly/1O48CkW

[straycat19]

Quote

Don't ever say you have freedom again

 

I have freedom, I have the freedom to bring those tweets to twitters attention and ask that they be taken down. I find them offensive.   Anyone who wakes up and thinks they are going to harm us is in for a rude awakening.  Terrorist are like flies, they eat shit and bother people and I am a flyswatter.  I also have the freedom to do that.  

 

[VileTouch]

9 minutes ago, straycat19 said:

 

I have freedom, I have the freedom to bring those tweets to twitters attention and ask that they be taken down. I find them offensive.   Anyone who wakes up and thinks they are going to harm us is in for a rude awakening.  Terrorist are like flies, they eat shit and bother people and I am a flyswatter.  I also have the freedom to do that.  

 

aww it's so heartwarming to see people who still think they have their freedom

[vissha]

Twitter says 'Why not try Tor?' after issuing first state-backed hack alert

 

Quote

Twitter has issued its first warning to users whose accounts it suspects have been targeted by state-sponsored hackers.

 

Attackers could have been trying to access account information such as the email addresses, IP addresses, and phone numbers from Twitter users.

 

Image: iStock

 

Over the weekend Twitter warned some users that their accounts may have been targeted by state-sponsored hackers.

 

The alert was the first from the social network and brings it in line with Facebook's and Google's efforts to warn users of attacks on user accounts.

 

Security researcher Runa Sandvik reported receiving an email from Twitter on Friday advising her that she is one of a "small group of accounts that may have been targeted by state-sponsored actors". Several other security and privacy researchers also reported receiving the email.

 

Coldhak, a Canada-based non-profit organisation, also received the warning from Twitter but is unaware why it was targeted. Colin Childs, one of Coldhak's founding directors, told Reuters that it hadn't noticed any impact from the attack.

 

Most communications on Twitter are public. However, the email highlighted that the attackers could have been trying to access account information such as the email addresses, IP addresses, and phone numbers.

 

Twitter acknowledged that some people who use a pseudonym to tweet may already be concerned by state-sponsored hackers and suggested checking out Tor privacy technology if they are.

 

However, as Sandvik pointed out, Twitter frequently blocks accounts accessed over Tor. A number of Twitter users in September reported being locked out of their account when accessing it from Tor.

 

Earlier this year Twitter also reportedly began asking Tor users to provide their phone number to sign up, which came shortly after introducing "new enforcement actions" to tackle accounts that violate its rules. Twitter has denied targeting Tor users with phone-verification requests.

 

Twitter said it is still investigating the suspected attacks.

 

Facebook introduced its state-sponsored hacker warning system this October, which arrived one day after Adobe patched a zero-day exploit for Flash that was being used by a suspected Kremlin-backed hacking group Pawn Storm.

 

Source

[Sylence]

6 hours ago, straycat19 said:

 

I have freedom, I have the freedom to bring those tweets to twitters attention and ask that they be taken down. I find them offensive.   Anyone who wakes up and thinks they are going to harm us is in for a rude awakening.  Terrorist are like flies, they eat shit and bother people and I am a flyswatter.  I also have the freedom to do that.  

 

 

You find them offensive? lol you're so deeply brainwashed, sorry

[CODYQX4]

2 hours ago, saeed_dc said:

 

You find them offensive? lol you're so deeply brainwashed, sorry

People think their feelings are a good reason to set the Bill of Rights on fire, and these useful idiots will ensure we lose every last shred that is our current illusion of freedom.

[steven36]

5 hours ago, AP1972 said:

Twitter released its first warning to users whose accounts it suspected were used to suspicious activity.

Yes, I have received such a notice in the mail

but it really is not true

Twitter makes a lot of spam to your mailbox

 

if Twitter send me a message about this  I would not take it lightly I would be concerned . There's no way to know if its true or not unless you had some kind of admin powers at Twitter.

[steven36]

20 minutes ago, AP1972 said:

I almost do not use it

I have no reason to worry for this reason

Its only 24 hours a day in a day  i come here for a little bit  most days  but as far as Google  , Twitter and Facebook its  Ive not signed into in years .  I don’t find anything of importance by logging  into  these known honey pot sites. 

[Sylence]

2 hours ago, CODYQX4 said:

People think their feelings are a good reason to set the Bill of Rights on fire, and these useful idiots will ensure we lose every last shred that is our current illusion of freedom.

 

Yes

He said he wants to report the terrorists. he'd be hanged for treason in his country.

[steven36]

24 minutes ago, saeed_dc said:

 

Yes

He said he wants to report the terrorists. he'd be hanged for treason in his country.

Just chill out it don’t even say who done it it could of been any country that done  it incl yours that done State-Sponsored Cyber-Attacks. People who own country that’s known to have this pointing finger at the next is the pot calling the kettle  black.  All you will do  is get the topic closed down  .  And I'm in the rules by saying this because im focusing on our alikeness when it comes State-Sponsored Cyber-Attacks  most all our governments have state run hacking groups .

[Sylence]

21 minutes ago, steven36 said:

Just chill out it don’t even say who done it it could of been any country that done  it incl yours that done State-Sponsored Cyber-Attacks. People who own country that’s known to have this pointing finger at the next is the pot calling the kettle  black.  All you will do  is get the topic closed down  .  And I'm in the rules by saying this because im focusing on our alikeness when it comes State-Sponsored Cyber-Attacks  most all our governments have state run hacking groups .

 

Cyber-attacks aren't even considered as terrorism anymore these days, every body can do that, let alone countries.

hacking your neighbor's WIFI is also an act of terrorism because it makes terror, if they find out. 

 

in the article it calls Russian, China, Iran and some south American countries the opposites. Lol. opposites to what? the U.S? 200 countries in the world and 199 of them can be called opposites because they are against 1? 

 

I'm talking exactly in the scope of the topic, if it gets closed it's not my fault.

[steven36]

15 minutes ago, saeed_dc said:

 

Cyber-attacks aren't even considered as terrorism anymore these days, every body can do that, let alone countries.

hacking your neighbor's WIFI is also an act of terrorism because it makes terror, if they find out. 

 

in the article it calls Russian, China, Iran and some south American countries the opposites. Lol. opposites to what? the U.S? 200 countries in the world and 199 of them can be called opposites because they are against 1? 

 

I'm talking exactly in the scope of the topic, if it gets closed it's not my fault.

Cyber-attacks are a crime in most countries and people go to jail for all the time look at the guys who ran TPB  who were accused  of this with out real proof and just got out of prison.

 

It shows what a messed up world we live in they put people in Jail for  it ,  but all of our governments  sponsor there own hacker groups its like parents  that tell there kids do as i say not as I do.

 

Our governments suppose  to lead by example but they don’t.   Most of the time when they take down a hacking group  they hire hackers to do it . Most Government workers are not smart enough to do it themselves.  

[Sylence]

Just now, steven36 said:

Cyber-attacks are a crime in most countries and people go to jail for all the time look at the guys who ran TPB  who were accused  of this with out real proof and just got out of prison.

 

It shows what a messed up world we live in they put people in Jail for  it ,  but all of our governments  sponsor there own hacker groups its like parents  that tell there kids do as i say not as I do.

 

Our governments superpose to lead by example but they don’t.   Most of the time when they take down a hacking group  they hire hackers to do it . Most Government workers are not smart enough to do it themselves.  

 

TPB? well all they care about is the copyrights and illegal contents in there. if they were smart they would put their servers where these copyright rules don't apply

 

they could still jail them though without making anything public, as they do for other situations.

 

Governments are smart enough to know who to hire, they don't need to know how to hack, they hire smart hackers. now it's all about the knowledge and good-working brains. 

 

[steven36]

14 minutes ago, saeed_dc said:

 

TPB? well all they care about is the copyrights and illegal contents in there. if they were smart they would put their servers where these copyright rules don't apply

 

they could still jail them though without making anything public, as they do for other situations.

 

Governments are smart enough to know who to hire, they don't need to know how to hack, they hire smart hackers. now it's all about the knowledge and good-working brains. 

 

A lot times it don’t have nothing to do with  that.. you must not really know how the law works ?  In a lot of countries they catch hackers and tell them to get pardoned from there crimes  they must hack for them .  Most of the time  they use someone that’s trusted by the hacker world. As far as TPB they accused them of hacking to try to  keep them in jail after they got done pulling time. The  governments are  making false charges to put them back in jail.

 

All my life I see the law  do this to people,  tell people to snitch on there friends  to get a reduced sentence   and many i knew pulled years anyway .  You cant really trust people you do know , let alone a bunch people you don’t know on the internet.

[Sylence]

7 minutes ago, steven36 said:

A lot times it don’t have nothing to do with  that.. you must not really know how the law works ?  In a lot of countries they catch hackers and tell them to get pardoned from there crimes  they must hack for them .  Most of the time  they use someone that’s trusted by the hacker world. As far as TPB they accused them of hacking to try to  keep them in jail after they got done pulling time. The  governments are  making false charges to put them back in jail.

 

I never been arrested for cyber-attacks, yet, but you seem pretty experienced..!

That's pretty nasty..I thought you can only keep someone in custody for 24 hours to prove his crime and if you fail they're free to go. how does the false accusations work then and why they want to keep them in jail? there's always someone to take their place

 

[steven36]

Just now, saeed_dc said:

 

I never been arrested for cyber-attacks, yet, but you seem pretty experienced..!

That's pretty nasty..I thought you can only keep someone in custody for 24 hours to prove his crime and if you fail they're free to go. how does the false accusations work then and why they want to keep them in jail? there's always someone to take their place

 

No I'm not  I just know how the law works  . I don’t even visit many sites or even get involved in politics   . I’m a basic  loner who minds my own business . I learned growing up if i did not want  be like my friends and go to jail for crimes  to become a loner and stay away. Most of this i learn long before i came on the internet,

[Sylence]

3 minutes ago, steven36 said:

No I'm not  I just know how the law works  . I don’t even visit many sites or even get involved in politics   . I’m a basic  loner who minds my own business . I learned growing up if i did not want  be like my friends and go to jail for crimes  to become a loner and stay away. Most of this i learn long before i came on the internet,

 

You don't necessarily need to tell your friends what you search for or what you're Interested in. you gotta know what kinda world you live in. without a good understanding of the world you can't make good decisions and others can use this to feed you their own tailored truth. it's not limited to politics, politics is only part of it. 

by crimes you mean prevalent crimes like robbery, use of weapons or narcotics? 

[steven36]

Just now, saeed_dc said:

 

You don't necessarily need to tell your friends what you search for or what you're Interested in. you gotta know what kinda world you live in. without a good understanding of the world you can't make good decisions and others can use this to feed you their own tailored truth. it's not limited to politics, politics is only part of it. 

by crimes you mean prevalent crimes like robbery, use of weapons or narcotics? 

Most of my old friends could care less about the internet I guess  .You must not realise  this about me when I grew up no one i knew had the internet it was before many people had it even. People will end up in trouble with or without  it . Crimes are Crimes regardless  if they use a pc to commit them are do them in car or on foot. If I don’t even like to hang with the people I  grew up with why would I trust anyone i don’t know in real life?  I did not grow up in a era were  people got the internet  confused  with real life . im older than most of you but not all of you.

[Sylence]

11 minutes ago, steven36 said:

Most of my old friends could care less about the internet I guess  .You must not realise  this about me when I grew up no one i knew had the internet it was before many people had it even. People will end up in trouble with or without  it . Crimes are Crimes regardless  if they use a pc to commit them are do them in car or on foot. If I don’t even like to hang with the people I  grew up with why would I trust anyone i don’t know in real life?  I did not grow up in a era were  people got the internet  confused  with real life . im older than most of you but not all of you.

 

What if you meet the person you've known only through the Internet? after that it'll be easier to trust them in the Internet, it'll be like calling your mom using phone, you personally know your mom and already trust her so you can call her on the phone or internet too and still trust her. I don't think you were born some time before 1970, because you said there wasn't anyone you knew that used Internet. 

[steven36]

14 minutes ago, saeed_dc said:

 

What if you meet the person you've known only through the Internet? after that it'll be easier to trust them in the Internet, it'll be like calling your mom using phone, you personally know your mom and already trust her so you can call her on the phone or internet too and still trust her. I don't think you were born some time before 1970, because you said there wasn't anyone you knew that used Internet. 

Let me put this way I’m not really poor any more  but I’m not rich ether .. But I grew up poor so I know how it is . I grew up around crime and never got in bad trouble in my life .  You don’t keep you’re nose clean as long as  I have being dumb . People who get in trouble  are people who are not happy with there own life or they think they have something to prove to the world . I''m happy and the only people i have anything to prove to is me and my family.

[Sylence]

6 minutes ago, steven36 said:

Let me put this way I’m not really poor any more  but I’m not rich ether .. But I grew up poor so I know how it is . I grew up around crime and never got in bad trouble in my life .  You don’t keep you’re nose clean as long as  I have being dumb . People who get in trouble  are people who are not happy with there own life or they think they have something to prove to the world . I''m happy and the only people i have anything to prove to is me and my family.

 

Yes can't agree with you more.

Hope your life be long and happy with your family