Twitter link glitch allows CIA contact line to be hijacked by hacker
Christopher Hutton
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A minor glitch was found by a hacker on the CIA‘s official account on X, formerly named Twitter, that foreign nations could hijacked.
Kevin McSheehan, a cybersecurity researcher, reported finding a security link on the platform’s social profile that could have been used to hijack a secure line. The CIA has a link to a Telegram account used to speak with informants on its platform. The link, which is https://t.me/securelycontactingcia, was added on Sept. 27 and linked to a private forum for providing tips to the CIA. The X account unintentionally shortened the link to https://t.me/securelycont, an unused Telegram username that could have been claimed by a third party.
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“The CIA really dropped the ball here,” McSheehan told the BBC. A foreign nation could have taken that Telegram tag and used it to acquire intelligence intended for the CIA, the researcher argued.
McSheehan registered the username himself while redirecting it to his channel. He also posted a message warning to visitors not to share secret information across the channel.
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“I did it as a security precaution,” he said. “It’s a problem with the X site that I’ve seen before — but I was amazed that the CIA hadn’t noticed.”
X and the CIA did not respond to requests for comment from the Washington Examiner. The original link, however, has been corrected.