Twitter Fixes Security Issue Affecting Some Android Devices

Twitter said on Wednesday it has fixed a security issue that could allow hackers to access private Twitter data of some Android users, including messages.

The microblogging site said it was not aware if the security issue was exploited by attackers, adding it had updated Twitter's Android app so that other apps cannot access its data.

In its post, Twitter said, "We recently discovered and fixed a vulnerability in Twitter for Android related to an underlying Android OS security issue affecting OS versions 8 and 9. Our understanding is 96 percent of people using Twitter for Android already have an Android security patch installed that protects them from this vulnerability."

"For the other 4 percent, this vulnerability could allow an attacker, through a malicious app installed on your device, to access private Twitter data on your device (like Direct Messages) by working around Android system permissions that protect against this."

"We don't have evidence that this vulnerability was exploited by attackers," Twitter added.

Hackers accessed the social media company's internal systems on July 15 to hijack some of the platform's top voices including US presidential candidate Joe Biden, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, former US President Barack Obama and billionaire Elon Musk and used them to solicit digital currency.

© Thomson Reuters 2020