NPR: Twitter Attack Underscores Broad Cyber Risks Still Facing U.S. Elections

The brazen security compromise at Twitter this week underscored the broad and lingering vulnerabilities of U.S. elections to sophisticated cyberattacks.

A number of accounts of political, technology and business figures were captured apparently from within Twitter’s own systems — as opposed to via individual attacks against the end users — and the social network’s response included silencing nearly all of its highest-profile users for a time.

The incident delivered a reminder about how much the U.S. information environment depends on one service in Twitter, how disruptions to it can cascade into the broader world, and how many targets an adversary has from which to choose in order to cause disruption. …

But as other critics said, including Common Cause, the loss of Twitter access not only meant that politicians couldn’t talk directly to voters. It also meant that many official entities or organizations lost that channel with their audiences too, which was and could again be disruptive.

“[The] hack occurred in an age when the current president conducts official business on his Twitter account,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause.

“Federal agencies such as the Census Bureau and the Center for Disease Control also share news and information through social media. It is time for real government oversight and for meaningful legislation to safeguard these important yet extremely vulnerable platforms.”