OAKLAND: A
hacking scheme that targeted political, corporate and cultural elites this week began with a teasing message between two hackers late Tuesday on online messaging platform Discord.
“yoo bro,” wrote a user named “Kirk,” according to a screenshot of the conversation shared with The New York Times. “i work at twitter / don’t show this to anyone / seriously.” He then demonstrated that he could take control of valuable Twitter accounts — the sort of thing that would require insider access to the company’s computer network.
The hacker who received the message, using the screen name “lol,” decided over the next 24 hours that Kirk did not actually work for Twitter because he was too willing to damage the company. But Kirk did have access to Twitter’s most sensitive tools, which allowed him to take control of almost any Twitter account, including those of former US president Barack Obama, former vice president Joe Biden, Elon Musk and many other celebrities.
Despite global attention on the intrusion, which has shaken confidence in Twitter and the security provided by other technology companies, the basic details of who were the people responsible, and how they did it, have been a mystery. Officials are still in early stages of their investigation.
Four people who participated in the Twitter hacking scheme spoke with the New York Times and shared numerous logs and screenshots of the conversations they had Tuesday and Wednesday, demonstrating their involvement both before and after the hack became public.
The interviews indicate that the attack was not the work of a single country like Russia or a sophisticated group of hackers. Instead, it was done by a group of young people — one of whom says he lives at home with his mother — who got to know one another because of their obsession with owning early or unusual screen names, particularly one letter or number, like @y or @6.
NYT verified th