Twitter is enhancing the security of high-profile accounts ahead of the 2020 US election. The social network on Thursday announced new protection measures to keep political candidates, elected officials, and journalists safe from hackers.
"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," the Twitter Safety blog said. That includes the president and vice president; members of the cabinet and Congress; governors and secretaries of state; presidential campaigns, political parties, and candidates with Twitter Election Labels; and major news outlets and political journalists.
Account owners can expect an in-app notification detailing the changes (pictured below). Selected users must implement a unique password (with at least 10 uppercase and lowercase characters that's different from other sites), and are "strongly encouraged" to enable two-factor authentication (2FA), which helps prevent unauthorized password modifications.
Twitter's first notification will look a bit like this (Photo via Twitter)
Twitter will also turn on password reset protection by default, requiring accounts to confirm their logged email address or phone number before updating a passcode. Additional safeguards—like more sophisticated suspicious activity alerts, increased login defenses, and expedited account recovery—are coming soon.
"While we're requiring some accounts do this given the unique sensitivities of the election period," the blog said, "everyone on Twitter can take advantage of these security measures (and we encourage them to do so)."
In July, an epic hack targeted some 130 Twitter accounts, allowing the culprits to see email addresses and phone numbers of profiles belonging to Apple, Uber, Jeff Bezos, Kim Kardashian West, and Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Now, with fewer than 50 days until the 2020 vote, Twitter is continuing to crack down on the spread of misinformation by more aggressively labeling and hiding inaccurate election-related posts.
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