Twitter begins alerting users about data breach

Twitter. — © AFP Jade GAO

Twitter has just confirmed that its December 2021 data breach compromising 5.4 million accounts was caused by a zero-day vulnerability. This is the same vulnerability reported and fixed in January of this year, but at the time, had no evidence suggesting a threat actor had exploited it.

Through this vulnerability, anyone was able to access and scrape information from Twitter accounts.

Twitter wrote in a press blog:

“We can confirm the impact was global. We cannot determine exactly how many accounts were impacted or the location of the account holders.”

Looking into this issue for Digital Journal is JP Perez-Etchegoyen, CTO at Onapsis.

Perez-Etchegoyen sees the admission as coming late in the day, with the issue part of a wider vulnerability affecting many businesses. The analyst says: “Twitter’s confirmation that their December 2021 data breach, which compromised over 5.4 million accounts, was caused by a zero-day vulnerability (now patched) emphasizes the damage these types of vulnerabilities can cause.”

Expanding on the background information, Perez-Etchegoyen says: “Twitter has also confirmed that this zero-day is the same vulnerability reported and fixed in January of this year, but at the time, had no evidence suggesting a threat actor had exploited it. Through this vulnerability, anyone was able to access and scrape information from Twitter accounts.”

Concerningly, Twitter has also indicated it cannot, as yet, confirm the full impact of the data breach: “We are publishing this update because we aren’t able to confirm every account that was potentially impacted, and are particularly mindful of people with pseudonymous accounts who can be targeted by state or other actors.”

In terms of wider vulnerabilities, Perez-Etchegoyen  comments: “This instance also underscores the increased need for secure development and vulnerability management measures to ensure proper prevention and identification measures when it comes to both known and unknown vulnerabilities.”

To address such issues, Perez-Etchegoyen observes: “Threat detection and vulnerability management platforms that provide complete visibility into mission-critical applications help security teams ensure that critical systems remain secure, efficient, and dependable.”

Perez-Etchegoyen also recommends as a preventative action: “Robust analytics, reporting capabilities, and automation proficiency that are leveraged through these security platforms assist in mitigating threats, ultimately keeping valuable data protected.”