Published 11:14 IST, July 16th 2020
Twitter Hack: Obama, Elon Musk, Apple & others hit in Bitcoin scam; Here's All We Know
On June 16, a number of high-profile celebrities with verified Twitter accounts fell prey to Bitcoin hackers in one of Twitter's biggest security breaches
- Tech
- 3 min read
On June 16, a number of high-profile celebrities with verified Twitter accounts fell prey to Bitcoin hackers in one of Twitter's biggest security breaches in its history. Accounts of prominent personalities along the likes of Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Kanye West, Joe Biden, were hacked by Bitcoin scammers, who circulated spam messages from their profiles asking people to donate money to a Bitcoin wallet address embedded as a link. With Twitter recording one of its worst infringements of privacy, here's all that we know about the unprecedented hacking scam.
What happened?
The scam was traced when Elon Musk’s account issued a tweet at 4:17PM ET that read - “I‘m feeling generous because of Covid-19. I’ll double any BTC payment sent to my BTC address for the next hour. Good luck, and stay safe out there!” Soon after, the identical tweet was posted from the account of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ account. Thereafter, a wave of tweets with the fake promotion was posted from accounts of personalities like Barack Obama, Kanye West, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, and Warren Buffet.
Twitter issues first response
After maintaining almost an hour of silence, Twitter in its first response at 5:45PM ET said that they are investigating the hacking attack and taking steps to fix it. “We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly.” In an unprecedented move, Twitter blocked the verified handles from posting anything, as it launched an investigation.
Who all were hacked?
The Twitter accounts of Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, along with other major names like Kanye West, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, and Warren Buffet were hacked. Twitter accounts of Apple, Uber, Square’s CashApp, and Coinbase were also hacked with the intent to post similar messages which contained a bitcoin wallet address that was directed to the hackers.
'Coordinated social engineering attack', says Twitter
In the latest update provided by Twitter, the social media giant said that the attackers who targetted their employees used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf. It added that while the investigation was on, they were clear that it was a 'Coordinated social engineering attack', adding that 'most functionalities had been restored.' Twitter further said that it had locked the accounts which had been compromised and that it will lift the lock once it's secure to do so.
'Tough day,' says Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey
Shortly after this, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey issued a statement calling it a 'tough day', revealing that everyone at Twitter feels 'terrible' about the incident. The accounts were restored after almost two hours, however, Dorsey did not provide any details on how exactly and to what extent Twitter's own systems may have been compromised. He, however, assured that the company will share 'everything they can', once they have 'more complete understanding of exactly what happened.'
As per reports, the bitcoin wallet has amassed over $100,000 within the last few hours after hackers spammed into the verified accounts. Here is a list of everyone who was hacked.
Updated 11:14 IST, July 16th 2020