At least one foreign government is taking an interest in what users are doing on Twitter.
The social media website has begun notifying users that they are being targeted by state-backed hackers trying to access their accounts. Among them was Canadian non-profit Coldhak, which posted a copy of the letter to its Twitter feed on Friday.
“As a precaution, we are alerting you that your Twitter account is one of a small group of accounts that may have been targeted by state-sponsored actors,” the letter states. “We believe that these actors … may have been trying to obtain information such as email address, IP addresses, and/or phone numbers.”
We received a warning from @twitter today stating we may be “targeted by state-sponsored actors” pic.twitter.com/oZm83eVFC5
— coldhak (@coldhakca) December 11, 2015
Coldhak describes itself as “a nonprofit dedicated to furthering privacy, security and freedom of speech.” The group comprises programmers and hackers, one of whom sits on the board of directors for the Manitoba Internet Exchange, and another of whom works on the Tor Project. Tor is an Internet browser with enhanced privacy protections that can also be used for accessing the “dark web,” to the consternation of government officials around the world.
In addition to several Canadians, at least two American users also received the letters. One was the Minneapolis-based “Cassie,” who identifies as a “crypto/privacy ninja” and co-founder of a “cryptoparty” group in Minnesota that teaches participants how to use encryption and enhance their privacy online. A second was Runa Sandvik of Washington, D.C., who formerly worked on the Tor Project and now trains journalists in online security.
Twitter’s letter, ironically, suggests that users seeking to protect their online identity use the Tor browser.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2574545
Unlike Facebook, Twitter has no formal policy of notification when users are being targeted by state-sponsored hackers. Facebook stated in October that it would begin notifying users when they were being targeted by governments, which may have been part of the reason perpetrators in this effort tried Twitter.
Experts observe that Facebook’s policy was directed primarily at China, which they fear will begin targeting U.S. intelligence operatives on social media. In addition to the Chinese, countries such as Ethiopia and Iran have also been known to target individuals living in North America, though they have generally been members of their diaspora.
Russia arguably objects to Tor the most of any foreign state. Nearly 200,000 Russians use the browser to access sites that have been blacklisted by the Kremlin, the third-most of any country after the U.S. and Germany. The Kremlin offered to pay $59,000 to “to study the possibility of obtaining technical information on users and users’ equipment of Tor anonymous network” this year, though the company that was awarded the contract has been trying to negotiate its release.
