TikTok acknowledges exploit targeting high-profile accounts | TechCrunch

TikTok says its safety staff is addressing a subject matter that allowed hackers to compromise a number of high-profile celebrity and logo accounts on its video platform, together with the ones belonging to Paris Hilton, CNN and Sony. The ByteDance-owned video app maker didn’t supply any details about the character of the assault or the corporate’s mitigation ways, as an alternative pronouncing handiest that it had taken measures to prevent the assault and save you it from going down at some point.

The malicious assault, as reported previous via Semafor and Forbes, seems to have concerned malware transmitted via TikTok’s DMs (direct messages) and can have affected the account house owners’ skill to get entry to their TikTok profiles. The hacker’s targets weren’t right away transparent, as not one of the affected accounts had begun to put up content material. In keeping with Semafor, CNN’s account was once damaged into via a hacker ultimate week, requiring the account to be taken down for a number of days. The scoop group mentioned it was once running with TikTok on further measures to make sure the account remained protected within the days forward, together with all through the U.S. presidential elections.

Reached for remark, TikTok declined to percentage extra information about the character of the assault or its countermeasures, in order to not “tip off” possible malicious actors.

“Our safety staff is conscious about a possible exploit focused on a lot of high-profile accounts,” an organization spokesperson mentioned. “We have now taken measures to prevent this assault and save you it from going down at some point. We’re running without delay with affected account house owners to revive get entry to, if wanted.”

The assaults arrive at a time when TikTok’s affect within the U.S. is below query. Mentioning nationwide safety issues, President Biden in April signed the invoice that can force TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the app or be banned from running within the U.S. If ByteDance doesn’t promote, it’ll grow to be unlawful for app retail outlets to distribute TikTok when the legislation is going into impact.

TikTok has since sued the U.S. government over the law, which is able to tie up the case in courts for plenty of months to come back. Within the period in-between, considered one of TikTok’s previous critics, Donald Trump — the primary president to take a look at to prohibit the app within the U.S. — has now taken to the app to campaign.