Vulnerability could expose Twitter for Android private data; Twitter urges users to immediately update

Recently, hackers have been pretty active, successfully rampaging Twitter accounts of celebrities just a couple of weeks ago, making those accounts send out Tweets with a bitcoin scam. The Independent now reports that apparently Twitter is urging Android users to update the Twitter app, as a newfound security issue could give malicious users access to private messages.

The recently discovered vulnerability affects Twitter for Android on devices running Android 8 and 9. The vulnerability is related to an underlying cause in the operating system itself, and could allow a hacker to gain access to the user’s private Twitter messages by working around Android permissions.

Before you stress out about this though, you should note that according to the Twitter post, 96% of Twitter users already have an Android security patch installed, where the security issue has been fixed. For the other 4% of Twitter users, the social media platform recommends immediately updating the Twitter app on your Android phone.

Luckily, Twitter states that they do not have evidence this vulnerability has been exploited by hackers as of now. The updated Twitter for Android app will make sure that external applications cannot gain access to its private data. What’s more, Twitter has sent in-app notifications to users to get them to update the app as soon as possible.

The Twitter app for iOS and Twitter.com are not affected by this security vulnerability.