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A number of high-profile Twitter accounts were simultaneously hacked on Wednesday by attackers who used the accounts — some with millions of followers — to spread a cryptocurrency scam.
Apple, Elon Musk and Joe Biden were among the accounts compromised in a broadly targeted hack that remained mysterious hours after taking place. Those accounts and many others posted a message promoting the address of a bitcoin wallet with the claim that the amount of any payments made to the address would be doubled and sent back — a known cryptocurrency scam technique.
In the hours following the initial scam posts, Kim Kardashian West, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Wiz Khalifa, Warren Buffett, YouTuber MrBeast, Wendy’s, Uber, CashApp and Mike Bloomberg also posted the cryptocurrency scam.
Before the scope of the incident became clear, the hack initially appeared to target cryptocurrency-focused accounts. In an initial wave of scam posts, @bitcoin, @ripple, @coindesk, @coinbase and @binance were hacked with the same message: “We have partnered with CryptoForHealth and are giving back 5000 BTC to the community,” followed by a link to a website, which we are not linking to.
The linked website was quickly pulled offline. Kristaps Ronka, chief executive of Namesilo, the domain registrar used by the scammers, told TechCrunch that the company suspended the domain “on the first report” it received.
Hacked accounts shifted to sharing multiple bitcoin wallet addresses as the incident went on, making things more difficult to track. Twitter acknowledged the situation at 2:45 p.m. PT Wednesday afternoon, referring to it as a “security incident.”
Twitter users reported seeing error messages on the platform as the situation went on. TechCrunch reporter Natasha Mascarenhas saw this error (see below) when she tried to create a threaded tweet. TechCrunch reporter Sarah Perez saw a similar error when trying to post a normal tweet. Both have verified accounts.
Twitter error message (Image: TechCrunch)
As the issues continued, many verified Twitter users also reported being unable to tweet. Around 3:15 p.m. PT, the official Twitter Support account confirmed “[Users] may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident.” By Wednesday evening, Twitter said that most tweeting should be back to normal but functionality “may come and go” as the company “continue working on a fix.”
More :
https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/15/twitter-accounts-hacked-crypto-scam/
Apple, Elon Musk and Joe Biden were among the accounts compromised in a broadly targeted hack that remained mysterious hours after taking place. Those accounts and many others posted a message promoting the address of a bitcoin wallet with the claim that the amount of any payments made to the address would be doubled and sent back — a known cryptocurrency scam technique.
In the hours following the initial scam posts, Kim Kardashian West, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Wiz Khalifa, Warren Buffett, YouTuber MrBeast, Wendy’s, Uber, CashApp and Mike Bloomberg also posted the cryptocurrency scam.
Before the scope of the incident became clear, the hack initially appeared to target cryptocurrency-focused accounts. In an initial wave of scam posts, @bitcoin, @ripple, @coindesk, @coinbase and @binance were hacked with the same message: “We have partnered with CryptoForHealth and are giving back 5000 BTC to the community,” followed by a link to a website, which we are not linking to.
The linked website was quickly pulled offline. Kristaps Ronka, chief executive of Namesilo, the domain registrar used by the scammers, told TechCrunch that the company suspended the domain “on the first report” it received.
Hacked accounts shifted to sharing multiple bitcoin wallet addresses as the incident went on, making things more difficult to track. Twitter acknowledged the situation at 2:45 p.m. PT Wednesday afternoon, referring to it as a “security incident.”
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.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 15, 2020
At first, it appeared that some of the compromised accounts were back under their owners’ control as tweets were quickly deleted. But then, Elon Musk’s account tweeted “hi” after his initial tweet with the scam was deleted. The “hi” tweet also disappeared.— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 15, 2020
Twitter users reported seeing error messages on the platform as the situation went on. TechCrunch reporter Natasha Mascarenhas saw this error (see below) when she tried to create a threaded tweet. TechCrunch reporter Sarah Perez saw a similar error when trying to post a normal tweet. Both have verified accounts.
Twitter error message (Image: TechCrunch)
As the issues continued, many verified Twitter users also reported being unable to tweet. Around 3:15 p.m. PT, the official Twitter Support account confirmed “[Users] may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident.” By Wednesday evening, Twitter said that most tweeting should be back to normal but functionality “may come and go” as the company “continue
More :
https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/15/twitter-accounts-hacked-crypto-scam/
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