Over the last week or so, Twitter has been warning some of a potential attack. This won’t come from your typical cyber thieves or hackers. This could come from international governments.
An investigation is still ongoing. The investigation reveals this impact can only impact IP addresses, email addresses, and possibly phone numbers, especially if phone numbers are linked to their Twitter accounts. Twitter didn’t say which country is behind the threat. But according to tech news website Motherboard, some of those targeted are involved in some sort of online activism. Some are part of the Tor Project. That’s a project that gives free software to help with anonymous communication. But despite these clues, no common factor could be determined. This threat makes Twitter history. This is the first time Twitter sent out notices warning people about a potential hacking threat. The first warning came from user @coldhacka, a self-proclaimed Canadian based privacy/freedom of speech organization. It was revealed one of their leaders is a contractor for Tor Project. A Tor Project security researcher also got the warning. Not only that, this researcher trains rouge journalist who advocate for privacy and other freedom based issues. Could a pattern be forming here?
The first thing that strikes me is which national government is behind the threat? Is it China? Is it Turkey? Is it Russia? Is it even the US? The world is becoming more and more unstable by the minute. They’re a lot of powerful leaders of a lot of powerful nations that don’t want their secrets revealed. I am thankful no critical information: credit card, bank accounts, Social Security numbers aren’t at risk this time. Twitter may not determine the factor, but I think I can. From what I can see, civil liberty groups, privacy rights advocates, and ‘anonymous’ style groups are the ones being warned. These are the kind of online groups world governments are at odds with. Is it any coincidence they’re the ones being targeted?