EXPLAINED | Can Twitter DMs Be Hacked And Do We Need Encryption For Them

Currently, DMs on Twitter are not end-to-end encrypted and according to Musk, the encryption should be like the Signal app.

Social media platforms are vulnerable to hacking and cyber-attacks and Twitter is no exception. Image: Getty

New Delhi: Social media platforms are vulnerable to hacking and cyber-attacks and Twitter is no exception, and perhaps that's why tech billionaire Elon Musk, who recently bought the micro-blogging platform, has suggested that Twitter DMs should be end-to-end-encrypted so that the conversations can't be snooped upon. End-to-end encryption (E2EE) has become a norm these days and it was popularised by Meta-owned WhatsApp which introduced end-to-end encryption to every form of communication on the platform in 2016. Currently, DMs on Twitter are not end-to-end encrypted and according to Musk, the encryption should be like the Signal app.

In E2EE, the data is encrypted on the sender's system or device, and only the intended recipient can decrypt it, thus, removing the chances of tampering the data by an internet service provider (ISP), application service provider, hacker or any other entity or service.

As mentioned above, Twitter and Twitter DMs, like any other social media platform, are vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Unlike a tweet, a Twitter DM is a private message sent to one or more users on the platform and DMs have a character limit. Generally, DMs can be sent to people who you follow on Twitter. Whether Twitter DMs should be encrypted, has been a matter of debate with the biggest chaos taking place when as many as 130 Twitter accounts, including those of Elon Musk himself and US President Barrack Obama and Jeff Bezos, were hacked in July 2020.

Acknowledging the attack, Twitter had said: "Based on what we know right now, we believe approximately 130 accounts were targeted by the attackers in some way as part of the incident. For a small subset of these accounts, the attackers were able to gain control of the accounts and then send Tweets from those accounts."

Messages on any platform, including Twitter DMs contain a lot of confidential information and can be dangerous if it falls in the wrong hands. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Twitter introducing end-to-end encryption for DMs may have averted the attack on high-profile Twitter accounts back in 2020. "End-to-end encryption provides the robust internal safeguard that Twitter needs. Twitter wouldn’t have to worry about whether or not this week’s attackers read or exfiltrated DMs if it had end-to-end encrypted them like we have been asking Twitter to do for years," Electronic Frontier Foundation had earlier said.