Twitter tumbles on concerns about hacking activity

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Twitter Inc shares fell almost 7 per cent after the company said it was investigating unusual traffic that might be from state-sponsored hackers and a security firm said hackers used the platform to try to steal user data.

UNITED STATES (REUTERS) - Twitter Inc shares fell almost 7 per cent after the company said it was investigating unusual traffic that might be from state-sponsored hackers and, in what appeared to be an unrelated issue, a security firm said hackers used the platform to try to steal user data.

Shares are not trending on Twitter - falling almost 7 per cent on Monday (Dec 17). It comes after the social media company reported unusual activity from China and Saudi Arabia, which it said in a blog could possibly be from state-sponsored hackers.

Twitter said it discovered suspicious traffic to a customer support forum and that the data exposed included things like country codes of phone number and details on locked accounts.

While Twitter fixed the breach on Sunday, the drop in shares is the biggest in more than two months, which could hurt user growth.

And on Monday, a security firm raised what appeared to be a separate security issue, saying hackers had used Twitter in October to try to steal user data.

Twitter did not elaborate on this issue when asked.

Meanwhile, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the country's position on Internet security and attacks was consistent, and added that it hopes all sides can deal with the issue via talks and cooperation.

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