Twitter has recently announced that they have automatically activated extra account protection for US politicians and key persons in the upcoming US election.
Twitter are prompting key individuals to make immediate changes to their account security after one of the most prolific hacks of social networks happened to twitter in June.
The hack in June saw world famous celebrities such as Bill Gates and Kanye West have their accounts seized by attackers to implement a Bitcoin scam. This scam saw these celebs accounts tweeting out a bitcoin scam where they where offering to double peoples money that where sent to a specified Bitcoin wallet. Of course this was the wallet of a hacker and unfortunately they where able to receive large amounts of money.
Because of this recent attack these high profile accounts will receive in-app notifications to improve their security. These will be mandatory prompts such as using a strong password – if they do not meet standards set by twitter they will be forced to change it next time they log in. They will also be advised to enable 2FA (Two Factor Authentication).
These changes are standard recommendation to ensure your accounts on the internet are as secure as can be to avoid as much as possible any account compromises by cyber attackers. A strong password and no duplication across multiple sites allows for minimised risk of hackers being able to use tools to generate passwords and also on the chance that they are able to get into one they cannot get into the others.
2FA is an excellent way to make sure that the risk of your accounts is minimised greatly. Although it can add minutes to your day, having that extra step to confirm that it is indeed you logging into an account via a second means other than just a password such as confirming via email, text or app makes sure that hackers cant log into your account unless they have access to those too.