Twitter will notify users of government-backed hacker attacks

Twitter is joining the Google - Facebook bandwagon, as it has started warning its users that they may be potential targets for "state-sponsored" hack attacks.

Canadian non-profit organization Coldhak has tweeted a copy of an email it has received from Twitter, warning it about a possible cyber-attack.

"As a precaution, we are alerting you that your Twitter account is one of a small group of accounts that may have been targeted by state-sponsored actors", it says in the email. "We believe that these actors (possibly associated with a government) may have been trying to obtain information such as email addresses, IP addresses, and / or phone numbers".

According to Twitter, it is possible that the hacks may not have been targeting these users. "At this time, we have no evidence they obtained your account information, but we’re actively investigating this matter. We wish we had more we could share, but we don’t have any additional information we can provide at this time", says the email sent by the company.

We received a warning from @twitter today stating we may be "targeted by state-sponsored actors" pic.twitter.com/oZm83eVFC5

— coldhak (@coldhakca) December 11, 2015

Facebook has implemented a similar practice in October this year. |We do this because these types of attacks tend to be more advanced and dangerous than others, and we strongly encourage affected people to take the actions necessary to secure all of their online accounts", Facebook’s chief security officer Alex Stamos said then.

State-sponsored attacks have become a thing nowadays, with hacking groups from China, North Korea, Russia being openly criticized for their alleged co-operation with the government.

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