Twitter issues statement after major security lapse, launches Bitcoin scam investigation

While numerous Twitter accounts belonging to senior US politicians, tech billionaires, and Hollywood celebrities were hacked on July 16 by bitcoin scammers, Twitter was quick to issue a response to the security lapse. In a tweet around 6 pm ET, Twitter Support wrote that it was “aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly.” 

Twitter’s response comes as hackers launched mass spams from the verified Twitter accounts containing a suspicious and an all similar bitcoin wallet address asking to “transfer funds”. In several tweets, spammers asked users to transfer cryptocurrency that "will be sent back doubled." One of the tweets read, "Only doing this for the next 30 minutes! Enjoy”. 

Immediately, a Twitter spokesperson notified that the social media giant was “looking into this.” Twitter said that it will share a statement soon when pitched by leading broadcasters about the incident.

While the tweets contained similar bitcoin addresses, presumably one associated with the hacker’s crypto wallet that funnelled funds from the users, Twitter notified that the accounts were currently in review and users would be unable to reset passwords. 

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Spams emerged despite two-factor authentication

As per reports, the bitcoin wallet has amassed over $100,000 within the last few hours as a series of spams emerged despite two-factor authentications set on many of these celebrity accounts. 

While some of the scam tweets were taken down by Twitter, a load of subsequent spam tweets followed that read, “Feeling grateful doubling all payments sent to my BTC address! You send $1,000, I send back $2,000! Only doing this for the next 30 minutes.” 

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