Premium Times, a prominent Nigerian investigative online newspaper, has been working for weeks to restore its X account following a cyber-attack incident.
On February 19, 2024, Premium Times notified the public that its official X account (@premiumtimesng) was breached where the attacker posted misleading crypto-related adverts.
“Dear Readers, at about 3:00 GMT, our X account was hacked. We are currently reviewing how the hacker was able to bypass our Two-Factor Authentication to gain access. We are also working to gain complete access to our account as quickly as possible. You can still read our stories on our website and all our other social media pages. We apologise for the inconvenience,” Premium Times explained in an official statement concerning the breach.
The cyber attack was quite unusual considering the popularity of the social media platform and the expectations of strict security to protect users’ accounts. Since Elon Musk took control of the platform in 2022, there have been several cases of account breaches from users where it takes a lengthy time for solutions to be effected.
It is also perplexing that the hack succeeded despite two-factor authentication (2FA) deployed in social media accounts as an additional security tool that serves as a shield against attacks.
Premium Times noted that the breach was orchestrated despite the account being protected by 2FA with “an industry-approved authenticator app and a verified phone number”. This incident calls into question the effectiveness of the current safeguards for verified accounts and highlights the urgent need for enhanced digital security,” it added.
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Recent efforts by Premium Times
During the course of the attack, the company noted that efforts were made to regain the account by initiating the recovery process using X’s official support channels. In addition, it submitted “a detailed support ticket with all the requested verification information.
However, no significant response was received 5 days later.
As the delay went on, the attacker changed the registered email address and phone number which made it impossible for Premium Times to regain control of the account.
In other efforts, the online newspaper said it reached out to its international partners for assistance where the organizations helped in addressing the issue through public pronouncements.
“Recognising the situation’s seriousness, we have contacted several industry partners, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Press Institute (IPI), Google News, and the Nigerian Cybersecurity Coordination Centre. These organisations have assisted in escalating the issue, yet a resolution from X remains elusive,” Premium Times explained.
The prolonged delay and failure by X to devise a solution to the issue raises concerns about flaws in its ability to protect its users’ accounts. As the Premium Times breach spells, any sort of account can experience a cyber-attack with the platform doing nothing about it. This paints a huge doubt on users’ trust in X to effectively protect their accounts.
However, the company urged its audience to rely on our official website and other verified social media channels for news updates pending the time it regain control of its X account.
Premium Times breach, not the first
In September 2022, Premium Time’s Twitter account was hacked by some suspected fraudsters, where the account was sharing crypto-related content after successfully changing the login details.
Unlike the current breach, Premium Times regained control of the account within 24 hours. The company tweeted then: “This is to inform our esteemed readers that we have regained control of our Twitter account which was hacked a few hours ago. We are now in full control of our @premiumtimesng. We thank you all for your support and patronage.”
Coming off another similar breach with the distribution of crypto-related contents foregrounds a trace in the incident.
What the attack means
With the growing number of cases where attackers successfully bypass Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), the incident comes as a wake-up call to all social media platforms to implement strong account protection for users. The breach signifies that all accounts are susceptible to breach once targeted.
For press freedom, the breach is an intimidation to silence media organizations which makes it difficult for Journalism to thrive in an evolving digital world. It is also a challenge to effectively executive the task of holding those in power accountable and serving its audience.
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