Twitter warns users of government hacking

Social networking giant Twitter has issued warnings to some users, notifying them their accounts may have been targeted by state-sponsored attacks.

On Friday, Canadian non-profit organization Coldhak – which does research in privacy, security and freedom of speech – tweeted a screenshot of an email it received from Twitter, warning that hackers may have tried to obtain personal information related to their account.

“We believe that these actors (possibly associated with a government) may have been trying to obtain information such as email addresses, IP addresses, and/or phone numbers,” read the email.

“At this time, we have no evidence they obtained your account information, but we’re actively investigating this matter. We wish we had more we could share, but we don’t have any additional information we can provide at this time.”

In an interview with Reuters, Colin Childs – one of the founding directors of Coldhak – said the organization has seen “no noticeable impact of this attack.”

This is the first time the social networking site has issued this type of warning to its users.

Twitter is currently investigating the issue; however, whoever was behind the alleged hacking attempt may have been targeting a certain kind of user.

Researchers who work for Coldhak also reported receiving an email from Twitter related to their personal accounts. Privacy and security researcher Runa Sandvik also received a warning.

Other users who reported receiving the warning tweet about online security, privacy and hacking and proponents of Tor – a secure web network that hides the user’s IP address in order to maintain anonymity.

Many Canadians also received the warning, including Toronto-based security researcher Noris Fabio and Kingston, Ont.-based software developer Phil Schleihauf.

Twitter has not provided additional information about the attack or possible suspects in its investigation.