The IT Nerd

I have never been so busy on a Friday evening.

Twitter has banned Michael Flynn, Ron Watkins and Sidney Powell. All of whom are associated with President Donald Trump. Here’s why:

“The accounts have been suspended in line with our policy on Coordinated Harmful Activity,” Twitter said in a statement to NBC News. “We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm, and given the renewed potential for violence surrounding this type of behavior in the coming days, we will permanently suspend accounts that are solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content.”

While it is a bit late to do this sort of thing, I’ll give Twitter some credit for doing this. Seeing as every 15 minutes Twitter punts someone else, expect more breaking news on this front.

A report from a Dutch newspaper has the story of a Hacker who claims to have pwned Donald Trump’s Twitter account. Apparently, the password was “maga2020!”:

The researcher, Victor Gevers, had access to Trump’s personal messages, could post tweets in his name and change his profile. Gevers took screenshots when he had access to Trump’s account. These screenshots were shared with de Volkskrant by the monthly opinion magazine Vrij Nederland. Dutch security experts find Gevers’ claim credible. The Dutchman alerted Trump and American government services to the security leak. After a few days, he was contacted by the American Secret Service in the Netherlands. This agency is also responsible for the security of the American President and took the report seriously, as evidenced by correspondence seen by de Volkskrant. Meanwhile Trump’s account has been made more secure. This is not the first time that Dutch hackers succeeded in taking over Donald Trump’s Twitter account. The first time was four years ago, just before the 2016 elections, when three hackers jointly managed to retrieve Trump’s password and access his account. That someone has now succeeded again, is remarkable. During the previous presidential elections Russian hackers attempted to influence the elections on a large scale. Subsequently, social media have taken various steps to prevent manipulation.

The dude who’s campaign slogan is MAGA, and is running for election in 2020… has a password of maga2020!

Like seriously? Worst password EVER.

Why isn’t someone in the Trump administration policing Trump’s internet usage? He clearly has the online sense of a nursing home resident. And he’s the most powerful man on Earth. At least for another fortnight one hopes.

Twitter for their part has said that they have no evidence to confirm the claim: 

And one would assume that Twitter would at a minimum have access to IP addresses of anyone who logged on. Having said that, they might not want to say that it did happen for their own reasons. Without more evidence, I’m reserving judgment if this is true, even if it would be really hilarious if true.

The New York Times reports that the feds have targeted a 16-year-old from Massachusetts who allegedly played a significant role in the July Twitter hack:

On Tuesday, federal agents served the teenager with a search warrant and scoured the Massachusetts home where he lives with his parents, said one of the people involved in the operation. A spokesman for the F.B.I. confirmed a search warrant had been executed at the address.

The search warrant and other documents in the case are under seal, and federal agents may decide not to charge the youth with a crime. If he is ultimately arrested, the case is likely to be handed over to Massachusetts authorities, who have more leverage than federal prosecutors in charging minors as adults. (The New York Times is not naming the teenager at this point because of his age and because he has not been charged.)

It will be interesting to see if this teenager is responsible. And if he is, he’ll join the other two who are accused of this hack in the slammer on an a wanted poster.

Today is the day for breaking news. ABC News is reporting that a Florida teen has been arrested in relation to the epic Twitter hack from earlier this month:

The 17-year-old Tampa resident, who was arrested Friday, was hit with 30 felony charges in connection with the hack, according to Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren.

“These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they’re not the primary victims here,” Warren said in a statement. “This ‘Bit-Con’ was designed to steal money from regular Americans from all over the country, including here in Florida. This massive fraud was orchestrated right here in our backyard, and we will not stand for that.” 

The Florida teen was the “mastermind” of the hack, according to a statement from Warren’s office.

That kind of implies that other arrests are coming or perhaps have already been made. Either way, this is huge. Expect more news to come shortly.

UPDATE: Here’s more. A Justice Department release has three people charged in connection to this hack. We only know of one that was arrested (the 17 y/o) in Florida. So I have to assume that the other two are still outstanding.

Twitter is “strongly encouraging” its almost 5,000 global employees to work from home due to concerns over the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, the company said Monday.

The social media company made the suggestion as part of a blog update one day after it suspended all non-critical travel for workers, including pulling out of the South by Southwest conference scheduled for later this month in Austin, Texas. Twitter says it’s mandatory for employees in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea to work from home, but that other offices will remain open for those who choose or need to come in. “We are working to make sure internal meetings, all hands, and other important tasks are optimized for remote participation,” the company wrote on its blog. Twitter’s policy on working from home is a step beyond what most companies in the U.S. are doing as the virus spreads.

This is a sensible approach. But it will only work if companies have the tech in place to pull this off. I am talking about things like VPN access, virtual meeting software, and the like. And it will only work if users are trained on how these things work so that IT helpdesks are not flooded with calls from remote users that didn’t get the training that they need. Thus I would suggest that if you are a company that is considering something like this, you might want to start getting your ducks in a row so that there are no surprises once you roll it out.