COURTESY HT JULY 19

Twitter attack was work of hacker pals with no organised crime links
San Francisco : Hackers involved in the high-profile hijacking of Twitter accounts earlier this week were young pals with no links to state or organised crime, The New York Times reported on Friday.

The attack, which Twitter and federal police are investigating, started with a playful message between hackers on the platform Discord, a chat service popular with gamers, according to the Times.

“The interviews indicate that the attack was not the work of a single country like Russia or a sophisticated group of hackers,” The Times reported, adding: “Instead, it was done by a group of young people - one of whom says he lives at home with his mother...”

The massive hack of high-profile users from Elon Musk to Joe Biden has raised questions about Twitter’s security ahead of US’s November election.