Twitter ups security for US election candidates

A select group of election-related accounts will have to make immediate changes to improve their security.

Twitter was the victim of one of the most significant hacks of a social network in history, in June.

It said it had learned ‘from the experience of past security incidents’ and was focused on election security.

Twitter said that in the coming weeks, it would be adding ‘proactive internal security safeguards’ for a much wider range of high-profile election-related accounts.

They include:

• The Executive Branch (including the president and vice-president)
• Congress (The House of Representatives and the Senate)
• US governors and secretaries of state
• Presidential campaigns, political parties and candidates
• Significant news outlets and political jounalists

Starting last week, those accounts started to receive in-app notifications of immediate changes on the user’s side.

Under new rules, these accounts will have to use strong passwords and those that do not meet Twitter’s standards will be required to change it the next time they log in.

All the accounts have had password reset protection enabled by default – a safety measure that requires the account holder to confirm the email address and password on file if they want to reset their password.

And they will also be encouraged – but not required – to enable two-factor authentication.