Twitter Election Security - ThreatWire

Twitter announced on Thursday that it will implement stronger security for certain high profile target accounts during the 2020 Election, which is only a matter of weeks away.  According to the update, these new security tools will be a requirement or strongly recommended, and the high profile account holders will be notified of the changes via an in app notification. The group of accounts include the US Executive Branch and Congress; Governors and Secretaries of State, presidential campaigns, political parties, and candidates running for House, Senate, or Governor, as well as major US news outlets and political journalists.

Accounts will be required to use a strong password, and any weak passwords will require an update. Twitter will also be enabling password reset protection, which will prevent unauthorized changes by requiring email address or phone number verification, and accounts will be “strongly encouraged” to use 2FA. 

It should be noted that SMS 2FA can still be bypassed by an attacker, and even a strong password could be phished using off the shelf, standard software or hardware tools. Adding these requirements doesn’t really do much unless proper internet security hygiene is used every day. While these requirements will be officially imposed upon high profile targets, they’re also available to us normies right now to take advantage of. Stronger passwords, login alerts, and 2FA are all available to twitter users through the security and privacy settings.

Twitter will also internally add sophisticated detection and alerts for quick response to suspicious activity, increased login defenses, and expedited account recovery support. 

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Twitter Security: https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/Improved-Account-Security-2020-US-Election.html https://help.twitter.com/en/safety-and-security/account-security-tips https://www.cnet.com/news/twitter-ramps-up-efforts-to-safeguard-high-profile-accounts-ahead-of-the-us-election/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/twitter-plans-to-protect-high-profile-us-political-accounts-ahead-of-the-2020-election/ https://www.cyberscoop.com/2020-election-twitter-security-politics/