hack attack

Twitter says hackers downloaded private account data

The breach saw the accounts of Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Kanye West and Bill Gates among other celebrities used to tweet a Bitcoin scam.

Twitter also revealed the perpetrators had downloaded data from up to eight of the accounts involved.

It declined to reveal their identities but said none of them were "verified".

This means they did not have a blue tick to confirm their ownership, and thus were not among the most high-profile hacked accounts.