{"id":18270,"date":"2022-02-13T14:10:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-13T22:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2022\/02\/13\/news-12003\/"},"modified":"2022-02-13T14:10:03","modified_gmt":"2022-02-13T22:10:03","slug":"news-12003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2022\/02\/13\/news-12003\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter cans 2FA service provider over surveillance claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Credit to Author: Malwarebytes Labs| Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2022 21:29:40 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Twitter is transitioning away from from its <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/glossary\/multi-factor-authentication-mfa\/\">two-factor authentication<\/a> (2FA) provider, Mitto AG, a Swiss communications company.<\/p>\n<p>The social media giant broke the news to US Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. It is noted that Twitter&#8217;s decision to move away from Mitto AG came after allegations that its co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Ilja Gorelik, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-12-06\/this-swiss-tech-exec-is-said-to-have-operated-a-secret-surveillance-operation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">sold access to Mitto&#8217;s networks<\/a> to surveillance technology firms.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-02-08\/twitter-tells-senator-it-is-cutting-ties-to-swiss-tech-firm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Talking to Bloomberg<\/a>, an aide close to Wyden said that Twitter cited media reports as a significant factor for its decision.<\/p>\n<p>In December, Bloomberg reported that\u00a0Gorelik had sold access to Mitto&#8217;s networks between 2017 and 2018. The companies that bought the access reportedly used it to help governments conduct secret surveillance against users through their phones.<\/p>\n<p>Mitto AG is a top provider in its industry and boasts a roster of big-named clients like Alibaba, Google, LinkedIn, Telegram, Tencent, TikTok, and WhatsApp. Representatives of the company have told its clients that Gorelik departed the company after these allegations arose. It isn&#8217;t clear if Gorelik left of his own accord or was pressured.<\/p>\n<p>As of this writing, Twitter has yet to name a new 2FA provider.<\/p>\n<p>So where does that leave Twitter users who use SMS 2FA? Although Twitter hasn&#8217;t hinted at temporarily suspending this particular option, users may opt to use two other forms of 2FA on offer: An authentication app or a security key. Twitter has a ready\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/help.twitter.com\/en\/managing-your-account\/two-factor-authentication\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">help page<\/a>\u00a0here on how to sign up.<\/p>\n<h3>The curious case of Mitto AG<\/h3>\n<p>While many may have been shocked by events involving Mitto, critics argue that the mobile industry has been known for such abuses for years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor years mobile industry organizations such as the GSMA have been aware of operators selling network access resulting in targeted surveillance,\u201d Gary Miller, a mobile security researcher at Citizen Lab, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-12-14\/mitto-tells-clients-that-co-founder-departed-after-allegations-of-phone-spying\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">told Bloomberg<\/a>. &#8220;The lack of regulation and accountability has brought unnecessary privacy and security risks to mobile users across the globe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/aboutus\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GSMA<\/a>&nbsp;is an organization that represents the interests of the mobile industry with groups\/chapters all around the globe. When interviewed about the Mitto case, a spokesperson from the group said that GSMA &#8220;takes network security and privacy very seriously and plays a leading role in creating a safer experience for mobile subscribers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dario Betti, CEO of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum, of which Mitto is a member, didn&#8217;t comment on the Mitto case but said in a broader context that abuses pose &#8220;a threat to the market and the market has to close down all these bad behaviors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is an industry built on trust, and we need to maintain that trust,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/privacy-2\/2022\/02\/twitter-cans-2fa-service-provider-over-surveillance-claims\/\">Twitter cans 2FA service provider over surveillance claims<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\">Malwarebytes Labs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/privacy-2\/2022\/02\/twitter-cans-2fa-service-provider-over-surveillance-claims\/\" target=\"bwo\" >https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/feed\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Credit to Author: Malwarebytes Labs| Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2022 21:29:40 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n<table cellpadding='10'>\n<tr>\n<td valign='top' align='center'><a href='https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/privacy-2\/2022\/02\/twitter-cans-2fa-service-provider-over-surveillance-claims\/' title='Twitter cans 2FA service provider over surveillance claims'><img src='https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Twitter-dark-finger-scaled.jpeg' border='0'  width='300px'  \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign='top' align='left'>Twitter is changing its 2FA service provider after allegations emerged that it sold access to its networks to surveillance companies.<\/p>\n<p>Categories: <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/category\/privacy-2\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Privacy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tags: <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/tag\/citizen-lab\/\" rel=\"tag\">Citizen Lab<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/tag\/dario-betti\/\" rel=\"tag\">Dario Betti<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/tag\/gary-miller\/\" rel=\"tag\">Gary Miller<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/tag\/gsma\/\" rel=\"tag\">GSMA<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/tag\/ilja-gorelik\/\" rel=\"tag\">Ilja Gorelik<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/tag\/mitto-ag\/\" rel=\"tag\">Mitto AG<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/tag\/mobile-ecosystm-forum\/\" rel=\"tag\">Mobile Ecosystm Forum<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/tag\/twitter\/\" rel=\"tag\">twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<table width='100%'>\n<tr>\n<td align=right>\n<p><b>(<a href='https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/privacy-2\/2022\/02\/twitter-cans-2fa-service-provider-over-surveillance-claims\/' title='Twitter cans 2FA service provider over surveillance claims'>Read more&#8230;<\/a>)<\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/privacy-2\/2022\/02\/twitter-cans-2fa-service-provider-over-surveillance-claims\/\">Twitter cans 2FA service provider over surveillance claims<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\">Malwarebytes Labs<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[10488,10378],"tags":[24960,24961,24962,24963,24964,24965,24966,5897,454],"class_list":["post-18270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malwarebytes","category-security","tag-citizen-lab","tag-dario-betti","tag-gary-miller","tag-gsma","tag-ilja-gorelik","tag-mitto-ag","tag-mobile-ecosystm-forum","tag-privacy","tag-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}