A security researcher was able to use a bug in the Twitter Android app to identify millions of Twitter users, connecting their phone numbers to their Twitter IDs. The exploit could expose failures in the company’s two-factor authentication system and give other security developers pause.
The bug exposed user accounts when Balic uploaded millions of phone numbers and asked Twitter to match them with users. Typically this interface is used only when new users install the app on their phone but, using a set of API calls, Balic was able to spoof this behavior. The resulting breach of privacy – essentially connecting real numbers to real Twitter handles – could reduce the efficacy of two-factor authentication schemes popular on financial applications and wallets.
According to a TechCrunch report, the researcher, Ibrahim Balic, created randomized lists of phone numbers and sent them to Twitter.
“If you upload your phone number, it fetches user data in return”, he said.
The user data allowed Balic to find phone numbers for many major Twitter «celebrities» including the private number of a «senior Israeli politician.»
“Upon learning of this bug, we suspended the accounts used to inappropriately access people’s personal information. Protecting the privacy and safety of the people who use Twitter is our number one priority and we remain focused on rapidly stopping spam and abuse originating from use of Twitter’s APIs”, a Twitter spokesperson said.
Trump’s Fed Nominee Judy Shelton Says US Should Be Proactive on Digital Dollar
Judy Shelton, President Trump’s nominee to the Federal Reserve Board, told lawmakers that digitizing the U.S. dollar could help maintain the currency’s ascendancy in global commerce.
At her Senate confirmation hearing Thursday, Shelton said the U.S. needs fintech innovation to keep ahead of other countries.
“Yes, it is a dominant reserve currency but we can’t rest on our laurels in that regard”, Shelton said. “Rival nations are working very diligently to have an alternative to the dollar. I think it is very important that we get ahead of the curve to ensure that the dollar continues to offer the best currency in the world.”
When asked by Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) how she will address the need for a digital dollar, Shelton said “it is an extremely important discussion and we are compelled to think about that.”
Her comments come at a time when digital currency initiatives by China’s central bank and the Facebook-spawned Libra Association have spurred the U.S. and other Western nations to seriously consider launching their own electronic monies.
Two weeks ago, former officials from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) set up a nonprofit to design proposals for a digital dollar. And earlier this week, Fed Chairman Powell told lawmakers that Libra was «a wake-up call» for the central bank, while emphasizing that its research was in the early stages.
Shelton has been a longtime advocate for the gold standard, which strictly pegs a currency’s value to gold, and has opposed the Fed’s easy-money policies.
“Gold standard rules permit nations to participate voluntarily by operating in accordance with the discipline of gold convertibility of their own currencies”, Shelton wrote in an article published by the libertarian Cato Institute in 2018.
“A modern version of this approach-one that permits the issuance of virtual currencies in tandem with government-issued currencies, adapting legal tender laws to permit healthy currency competition-should be put forward”, she added.
More recently, however, Shelton has come under criticism for supporting the president’s position that interest rates, already historically low, should be cut further.
Trump nominated Shelton for the Fed board in July along with Chris Waller, director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
