Twitter doesn’t even have two-factor authentication anymore

Twitter’s communications department, which apparently it no longer existsdid not respond to a text message request from Wired USwhile Musk did not respond to a tweets with some questions on the matter.

Possible consequences

“A temporary break in multi-factor authentication could have the effect of blocking people’s access to their accounts. But the biggest concern is that this drives users to disable multifactor authentication altogetherthus making them less secure – explains Kenneth White, co-director of the Open crypto audit project and security engineer -. It’s hard to say exactly what’s causing the problem so many people are reporting, but it certainly could stem from the announced large-scale changes to web services“.

Despite the text messages are not the safest way to receive authentication codes, many people rely on this system, which according to security researchers is still better than nothing. For this reason, even sporadic service interruptions could put users at risk.

Precedents and wider implications

It’s not the first time that over the years the system of sending Twitter authentication codes via sms has proved to be unstable. In August 2020, for example, the company’s helpdesk wrote in a tweets: “We are investigating the failure to deliver verification codes via text message or phone call. We apologize for the inconvenience and will keep you updated as we continue to work to resolve the issue“. Three days later, the company has added: “We still have some work to do to restore delivery of tracking codes, but we’re making progress. We are sorry for any frustration this has caused and we appreciate your patience“.

That the misunderstanding is now re-emerging, perhaps, is a sign that systems that Twitter has long struggled to maintain are among the first to be destabilized without proper maintenance and support. Former and current employees of the company have described Twitter as a platform with aconvoluted and fragile technical infrastructure. Meanwhile, Musk’s changes to account verification rules, the so-called “blue check”, could lead to a significant increase in scams on the site and even more widespread content moderation problems than those registered under the previous management.