Twitter Hacked In Massive Bitcoin Scam: Joe Biden, Elon Musk Accounts Among Dozens Breached

     The Twitter accounts of dozens of high-profile figures and companies were hacked Wednesday, including Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Kanye West, Joe Biden and Apple, to promote an apparent Bitcoin scam. Twitter accounts belonging to Michael Bloomberg, Wiz Khalifa, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Warren Buffett, CashApp and Uber, were also among those hijacked

Also Read: COVID-19 Has Added To Record Breaking Cybercriminal Actions

     The scammers posted the same message, promising users who give Bitcoin to an account listed in the tweets double their payment in return, which is a common cryptocurrency scam.

     “I am giving back to the community. All Bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled! If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000. Only doing this for 30 minutes,” the tweets read.

     As hackers were still sending out scam tweets more than an hour after the first accounts were breached, Twitter temporarily prevented all verified accounts from tweeting in an effort to stem the spread of even more scams, causing momentary chaos for news organizations, journalists and others.

Also Read: BHIM Data Leak Exposes 7 Million Indians Data

     As of 6:54 p.m. EST, the scammers appeared to have received 355 donations netting 12.86131944 BTC, which totals $118,365.30.

     In a tweet thread late Wednesday, the company said hackers gained access to its internal systems through a successful “social engineering attack” against its employees (social engineering is a technique used by hackers to dupe users into clicking on malicious links or giving away sensitive data by crafting fake emails or other messages.)

Also Read: 10 Security Tips You Must Follow In Order To Prevent Your Devices And Data From Hackers

Crucial quote

     “We have locked accounts that were compromised and will restore access to the original account owner only when we are certain we can do so securely,” Twitter said. “Internally, we’ve taken significant steps to limit access to internal systems and tools while our investigation is ongoing. More updates to come as our investigation continues.”

Also Read: Best Smartphones Under 20000 in both section Chinese as well as Non-Chinese You Can Buy In India [June 2020 Edition]

Key background

     This isn't the first time prominent Twitter accounts have been subject to security issues. Last year, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's profile was breached by hackers who tweeted the N-word, as well as the suggestion a bomb had been placed at Twitter headquarters. At the time, Twitter said Dorsey's phone number had been compromised, which "allowed an unauthorized person to compose and send tweets via text message." And in 2017 a rogue Twitter employee shut down the President Donald Trump’s account for 11 minutes on his last day on the job.