State-sponsored actors may have accessed users' phone numbers, says Twitter
In astatement published on its privacy blog,Twittersaid it had identified a "high volume of requests" to use the feature coming from IP addresses in Iran, Israel, and Malaysia. It said, without elaborating, that "some of these IP addressesmayhaveties tostate-sponsoredactors."
A company spokeswoman declined to say how many userphonenumbershad been exposed, sayingTwitterwas unable to identify all of the accounts thatmayhavebeen impacted.
She saidTwittersuspected a possible connection tostate-backedactorsbecause the attackers in Iran appeared tohavehad unrestricted access toTwitter, even though the network is banned there.
Tech publication TechCrunch reportedon December24 that a security researcher, Ibrahim Balic, had managed to match 17 millionphonenumbersto specificTwitteruser accounts by exploiting a flaw in the contacts feature of its Android app. TechCrunch said it was able to identify a senior Israeli politician by matching aphonenumber through the tool.
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The feature, which allows people with a user'sphonenumber to find and connect with that user onTwitter, is off by default for users in the European Union where stringent privacy rules are in place. It is switched on by default for all other users globally, the spokeswoman said.
Twittersaid in itsstatement that it has changed the feature so it no longer reveals specific account names in response to requests. It has also suspended any accounts believed tohavebeen abusing the tool.
However, the company is not sending individual notifications to users whosephonenumberswereaccessedin the data leak, which information security experts consider a best practice.