Twitter: DMs Were Accessed in Last Week's Attack

Hackers did indeed get access to private direct messages on Twitter. "We believe that for up to 36 of the 130 targeted accounts, the attackers accessed the DM inbox," Twitter said Wednesday of the July 15 attempt, per CNN, identifying one of the accounts as belonging to an elected official in the Netherlands. The company said no other former or current politicians' DM inboxes were accessed, which will come as good news to targets including Joe Biden and former President Obama. Of 130 targeted accounts, 45 tweeted out a cryptocurrency scam, including those of Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Kanye West, and Kim Kardashian West. The BBC notes Twitter didn't say whether there was overlap between those accounts and the ones whose DMs were viewed.

Local reports suggest the Dutch official is far-right politician Geert Wilders, whose profile image was replaced with a cartoon of a Black man, per the BBC. The background image of his account was replaced with the Moroccan flag. Email addresses and phone numbers were also exposed in last week’s attack. The US Senate Commerce Committee has requested a briefing by Twitter by Thursday. (Fingers are pointing at a 21-year-old in England.)