Hackers find way to reactivate banned Twitter accounts

A Spanish hacker group has discovered how to bring banned or inactivated Twitter accounts back to life. The group, called Spain Squad, has attempted to sell off some popular banned accounts.

Business Insider was the first to discover the Spaniards’ practices. Twitter was unable to respond substantively to the coverage, but Business Insider notes that since the news became known, the reactivated accounts have been banned again.

Spain Squad then tried to sell banned accounts via Twitter itself. In addition, the hacker team has tried to get rid of @botnet, @hitler, @lizardsquad and @hell, among others. It is not known whether this was also successful before Twitter intervened. However, Spain Squad has demonstrated to Business Insider that it had access to the banned accounts. Furthermore, the hackers state that they have no malicious intent, and that they carried out the hacks ‘for fun’.

It is unknown which exploit was used to restore banned and inactivated accounts. Although security holes were discovered at Twitter before, the method used has not been disclosed this time; in doing so, Spain Squad hopes to prevent the social networking site from closing the gap.