As the US Presidential election inches closer, social media giants are under intense scrutiny and immense pressure to serve reliable information while also avoiding security-related disasters. After all, it was not too long ago that Twitter accounts of big names such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Barack Obama were hacked to promote a cryptocurrency scam. With the elections in mind, Twitter has today announced that it is beefing up the security of ‘high-profile accounts’ to make sure that they’re not hacked to disseminate misleading information related to the elections.
What are the target accounts for a security boost?
“We’re taking the additional step of proactively implementing account security measures for a designated group of high-profile, election-related Twitter accounts in the US,” Twitter says in a blog post. So what are these ‘high-profile accounts’ exactly? Here’s how the company defines them:
- US Executive Branch and Congress
- US Governors and Secretaries of State
- Presidential campaigns, political parties and candidates with Twitter Election Labels running for US House, US Senate, or Governor
- Major US news outlets and political journalists
What security measures will be implemented?
Starting today, owners of ‘high-profile’ Twitter accounts will start receiving notifications, advising them to follow certain security protocols. Twitter will enable its Password Reset Protection feature for such accounts by default, making sure that a malicious party can’t change the password and take over such accounts. Additionally, users will be advised to use a strong password to protect their account, and also enable two-factor authentication (2FA) as an added layer of security.
Twitter will change things internally too
On its own end, Twitter will employ more sophisticated detection tools to spot suspicious activities and will offer stronger login defense to make sure that those accounts can’t be easily taken over. Plus, the company will also offer priority assistance to recover accounts if any security lapse is detected. All the aforementioned steps will be implemented in the coming weeks, leading up to the US Presidential elections on November 3rd, 2020.
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