Over 1,000 employees had access to Twitter account settings

SAN FRANCISCO: More than 1,000 Twitter employees and contractors, including some at Cognizant, as of earlier in 2020 had access to internal tools that could change user account settings and hand control to others, two former employees familiar with Twitter security practices said.

Twitter Inc and the FBI are investigating the breach that allowed hackers to repeatedly tweet from verified accounts of the likes of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

The potential involvement of low-level cybercriminals has particularly alarmed professionals because of the implication that a hostile government might be able to cause even greater havoc.

Twitter said on Friday it was looking for a new security head, working to better secure its systems and training employees on resisting tricks from outsiders.

The former employees said that Twitter had gotten better about logging the activity of its people in the wake of previous stumbles, but while logging helps with investigations, only alarms or constant reviews can prevent breaches.

Threats from insiders, especially lower-paid outside support staff, are a constant worry for companies serving large numbers of users, cyber security experts said. They said that the greater the number of people who can change key settings, the stronger oversight must be.