Hackers target Twitter users with swastikas
Hijacked posts were mostly in Turkish; European Parliament, Mayweather accounts among those hijacked
Dozens of Twitter accounts were hacked Wednesday in an apparent large-scale cyberattack.
Many of the hacked posts were in Turkish and featured a swastika and the hashtags #Nazialmanya and #Nazihollanda. Among the affected Twitter accounts were the European Parliament, UNICEF USA, BBC North America and boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s promotional account.
The messages called the hacking a “little Ottoman slap” and said “See you on April 16” — the date of a referendum in Turkey on stronger powers for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A video in the tweet featured various speeches by Erdogan.
BBC North America tweeted that it “temporarily lost control” of its account but “normal service has resumed.”
“We are aware of an issue affecting a number of account holders this morning,” Twitter said in a statement.
“Our teams are working at pace and taking direct action on this issue. We quickly located the source which was limited to a third party app. We removed its permissions immediately. No additional accounts are impacted. Advice on keeping your account secure can be found here,” it said.
UNICEF USA confirmed its account was hacked and said it was “deeply concerned that our social media platforms would be used to promote hate speech.”
The attack was apparently launched via a vulnerability in the Twitter Counter third-party app, tech website Gizmodo reported. Twitter Counter, which was founded in the Netherlands and offers statistics and analytics services, tweeted: “We’re aware that our service was hacked and have started an investigation into the matter. We’ve already taken measures to contain such abuse.” The hack came amid a diplomatic spat between Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands after Dutch and German officials barred Turkish ministers from campaigning in parts of their countries. Those actions led Erdogan to say “Nazism is alive” in the West.