Twitter reveals hackers viewed private messages of 36 accounts

Twitter has revealed that hackers viewed private direct messages (DMs) from 36 of the accounts involved in last week’s hack.

It has not disclosed who they belonged to beyond saying one was owned by an elected official in the Netherlands.

Twitter added that it does not believe any other former or current politicians had their DMs accessed.

It is not clear how many of the accounts overlap with the 45 that tweeted a Bitcoin scam.

Although Twitter has not named the Dutch official affected, local reports have indicated it is likely the far-right politician Geert Wilders.

Last week, his profile image was replaced with that of a cartoon of a black man, and his account’s background image was changed to that of the Moroccan flag.

On 16 July, the accounts of several high profile business leaders, celebrities and politicians accounts posted a bogus get-rich-quick scheme, including:

Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos

Tesla’s chief Elon Musk

the rapper Kanye West

the reality-TV star Kim Kardashian West

former US President Barack Obama

the Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden

It is believed victims sent about $120,000 (£93,600) in Bitcoin to the perpetrators, and the sum would have been larger if a crypto-currency exchange had not blocked further transfers.

Twitter has said a total of 130 accounts were targeted in the attack, which exposed personal information including email addresses and telephone numbers.