Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos including 100+ verified accounts were compromised
Probably the biggest scam on the internet had taken place since 1999. Whether its Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Apple, Bill Gates, or Jeff Bezos, possibly 130 influential Twitter accounts were hacked on 16 July for around 30-45 minutes. After hackers tightened grip on account, they posted a message around the idea that they (verified account holders) want to serve back to the community to fight the COVID-19 crisis. Users just have to invest in bitcoin and they will double the amount in return.
Because the hackers did set a time limit of 30 minutes, trusting followers may have donated collectively in millions as a result. Twitter is busy investigating while in a series of updates, the microblogging network on Friday revealed that it had no evidence that attackers accessed passwords and thus didn’t find resetting passwords necessary.
As the aftermath of the attack, Google has dropped the prominent Twitter carousel from its search results. The San Francisco division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is also reportedly leading an inquiry into the Twitter hack.
So how did the hackers get access to the internal tool? “We used a rep that literally did all the work for us,” one of the hacker sources told Motherboard. Another source said that they paid the Twitter insider.
An internal tool at Twitter was used to take over the high-profile accounts, screenshots obtained by Motherboard as well as sources revealed.
The hacker used the tool to reset the associated email addresses of affected accounts to make it more difficult for the owner to regain control, TechCrunch noted. The hacker then pushed a cryptocurrency scam that was noticed by everyone on Wednesday.
The tool was used on the Twitter panel to hack OG accounts or accounts that have a handle consisting of only one or two characters. The panel, whose screenshots were widely shared and later taken down by Twitter, showed if the targeted user’s account has been suspended, is permanently suspended, or has protected status.
The panel was also used to post tweets related to cryptocurrency scams from the high profile accounts that blasted off on the platform.
“As per our rules, we’re taking action on any private, personal information shared in Tweets,” said a Twitter spokesperson.
The Instagram profile also posted a message that said: “It was a charity attack. Your money will find its way to the right place.”
