INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Twitter said in a blog that it discovered suspicious traffic to a customer-support forum
(File)Twitter Inc shares fell almost 7 percent after the company said it was investigating unusual traffic that might be from
state-sponsored hackers and, in what appeared to be an unrelated issue, a security firm said hackers used the platform to try to steal user
data.Twitter said in a blog that it discovered suspicious traffic to a customer-support forum while investigating a security bug that
exposed data, including users' phone country codes and details on locked accounts
It said the bug was fixed November 16.Twitter observed a large amount of traffic to the customer support site coming from individual
internet IP addresses in China and Saudi Arabia."While we cannot confirm intent or attribution for certain, it is possible that some of
these IP addresses may have ties to state-sponsored actors," the blog said."We continue to err on the side of full transparency in this area
and have updated law enforcement on our findings," it said.A company spokesman declined to elaborate as Twitter shares posted their biggest
drop in more than two months.Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter blamed the decline on concerns that news of a breach could hurt growth and user
engagement."Clearly, a breach like this impairs user trust in the platform," he said.Separately, security software maker Trend Micro Inc
said in a blog earlier on Monday that attackers sent out two tweets in October in a bid to steal data from previously infected machines.The
hackers hid instructions in tweeted memes that secretly ordered infected devices to send information, including user names, screen images
and other content, Trend Micro said.The Twitter spokesman declined comment on the Trend Micro report.(Except for the headline, this story
has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
