7/22/2020

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, July 22, 2020 Contact: Office of Communications, Communications@MyFloridaCFO.com, 850.413.2842

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…. WFLA: “Florida CFO fears Twitter breach could target economy, elections”

“Florida CFO fears Twitter breach could target economy, elections” WFLA (Tampa Bay) July 21, 2020 For Full Story Click HERE For Video Click HERE

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is being called on to investigate a recent security breach at Twitter that compromised at least eight high–profile users’ accounts.

The goal is to figure out what went wrong in hopes of preventing similar attacks from interfering with the state’s economy and elections.

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“What’s a concern to me is every state agency, every federal agency depends on Twitter in order to get official statements out,” Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said.

Patronis has asked FDLE to aid the FBI and other law enforcement investigating the incident. He said it could help Twitter identify how to prevent future attacks.

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“We’ve got a state that has $170 billion in our state retirement account. If somebody was to manipulate the wrong CEOs’ – or the right CEOs’ – Twitter accounts to send a message out, that sends our values of our state retirements plummeting,” said Patronis.

But he also worries an attack on the Twitter account of an elections supervisor could have implications for the primary or general election.

---   ###   About CFO Jimmy Patronis  Chief Financial Officer and State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis is a statewide elected official and a member of Florida’s Cabinet who oversees the Department of Financial Services. CFO Patronis works each day to fight insurance fraud, support Florida’s firefighters, and ensure the state’s finances are stable to support economic growth in the state. Follow the activities of the Department on Facebook (FLDFS) and Twitter (@FLDFS).