Twitter to tell key US officials to opt for strong passwords

The key accounts will be informed via an in-app notification from Twitter of some of the initial account security measures.

These accounts will be required to use a strong password. Accounts with a weak password will be required to update and use a stronger password the next time they log in.

"These accounts will be strongly encouraged to enable Two-factor authentication (2FA). Twitter will enable Password reset protection for accounts by default," the company said in a statement on Thursday.

This is a setting that helps prevent unauthorized password changes by requiring an account to confirm its email address or phone number to initiate a password reset.

Twitter will alert candidates with Twitter Election Labels running for US House, US Senate, or Governor and major US news outlets and political journalists to opt for strong passwords.

"As we learn from the experience of past security incidents and implement changes, we're also focused on keeping high-profile accounts on Twitter safe and secure during the 2020 US election," the company said.

A massive crypto hack hit Twitter in July where hackers accessed the DM (direct message) inbox of up to 36 of the 130 targeted users.

The accounts of major public figures including US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Apple and Uber were simultaneously hacked by attackers to spread a cryptocurrency scam.

In the coming weeks, Twitter will also implement additional proactive internal security safeguards for these accounts such as more sophisticated detections and alerts, respond rapidly to suspicious activity, increased login defenses to prevent malicious account takeover attempts and expedited account recovery support to ensure account security issues are resolved quickly.