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- The extraordinary
hacking spree

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that hit Twitter, targeting
some of the most high profile

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accounts, is drawing urgent
questions about the platform's

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security and resilience.

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The company said late Wednesday
that hackers took control

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of employee credentials to
hijack the accounts of some

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of the most prominent political
and business figures in the US,

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from Barack Obama
and Joe Biden to Bill

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Gates and Warren Buffett.

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In a series of tweets,
the company said, quote,

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"we detected what
we believed to be

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a coordinated social
engineering attack by people who

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successfully targeted
some of our employees

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with access to internal
systems and tools."

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The company's statement
confirmed the fears of security

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experts that the service
itself, rather than

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users, had been compromised.

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Posing as celebrities
and the wealthy,

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those responsible for the attack
asked followers to send Bitcoin

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to a series of addresses.

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MIKKO HYPPONEN: I don't think
this particular attack has

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any links to foreign nations.

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- Mikko Hypponen, a
cybersecurity expert,

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says what the hackers chose to
do with their access tells us

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a lot about who they could be.

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MIKKO HYPPONEN: Remembering they
could do anything on Twitter,

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they chose to use these quick
hack mechanisms of making

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a little bit of Bitcoin.

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They could have sold this
access to a number of places--

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for example, to foreign
intelligence agencies.

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They could have used this
access to announce a merger

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and acquisition in the name
of Bill Gates or Elon Musk,

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which would have immediately
affected stock prices.

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This was most likely
an opportunistic hack,

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most likely done by
some younger people.

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And this was the first
thing they could imagine

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to make some money with.

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- Wednesday's hack, the
worst to date for Twitter,

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is also raising questions
about Twitter's resilience

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in the run-up to the US
presidential election.

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Its role as a key communications
platform for politicians

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and public officials, including
President Donald Trump,

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has led to fears hackers
could wreak havoc

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with the November
election or otherwise

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compromise national security.

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After the day's chaos, Twitter
CEO Jack Dorsey said quote,

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"tough day for us at Twitter.

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We all feel terrible
this happened."

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