The hacked accounts belonged to high profile figures such as President Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Kanye West, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, Mike Bloomberg and Apple.
All the accounts posted similar tweets soliciting donations via Bitcoin to promote a bitcoin scam. “Everyone is asking me to give back, and now is the time,” the tweets said, promising to double all payments to a Bitcoin address for the next 30 minutes.
To address the issue, Twitter’s support account responded: “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.”
Soon, Twitter prevented holders of verified accounts from tweeting while non-verified accounts could still tweet. Twitter also deactivated the reset password feature and limited some other account functionalities.
About three hours later, the social media giant said the majority of accounts had been restored to full functionality. It stated that they were working to get things back to normal and though accounts could tweet again, the functionality could come and go.
The hack was not exactly unprecedented as just last year, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s account was hacked. The compromise of the apex account on Twitter raised concerns about whether any account on the platform can genuinely avoid being compromised. This new development appears to answer the question that any account can indeed be hacked.
Spokespersons for the victims involved where all put into a frenzy; dismissing allegations and denying responsibility for the tweets. Although President Trump’s account was not hacked, the White House refused to comment on the security of his twitter account.
According to Tim Cotten, a Bitcoin researcher, the first Bitcoin wallet featured in some of the tweets only became active on Wednesday. Soon after the wallet’s identification number was posted to Twitter, it received more than $100,000 worth of Bitcoins through hundreds of transactions. Some of that Bitcoin was then transferred to other wallets.
The FBI has weighed in on the matter, warning the public not to fall victims of the bitcoin scam.
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