Thousands of Twitter users have this morning had their accounts hijacked and used to tweet a swastika and Nazi hashtags. The attack appears to be in support of Turkey’s President, urging support for a referendum which could allow President Erdoğan to remain in power until 2029.
The Verge reports that many verified and high-profile Twitter accounts were compromised, and that the hijack appears to have been carried out via a third-party app.
Accounts operated by Amnesty International, Duke University, Reuters Japan, and BBC North America were among those hijacked. Several users have noted that all hijacked tweets appear to have been linked to Twitter Counter, a Netherlands-based analytics application. Twitter Counter was previously targeted in a November 2016 attack that caused some high-profile accounts to spread spam.
Twitter confirmed that a third-party app was behind the hack, so checking which apps have permission to access your Twitter account is one important step to take. H
