Which high-profile individuals were targeted in the Twitter hack?

Question

Accepted Answer

High-Profile Individuals Targeted in Twitter Hack

The Twitter hack on Wednesday saw the accounts of several prominent figures compromised, including Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Apple, Uber, Kanye West, Bill Gates, and Barack Obama. These accounts were used to disseminate fraudulent messages promoting a cryptocurrency scam. The social network indicated that the breach was likely facilitated by a coordinated social engineering attack targeting some of its employees with access to internal systems and tools.
Compromised Accounts Spread Bitcoin Scam

The fraudulent tweets, largely removed by Twitter, purported to offer a doubling of Bitcoin sent to a specified address within a 30-minute window. For instance, a post on Elon Musk's feed claimed he was "giving back Bitcoin to all of my followers" and would send double the amount received. Similar promises of instant financial gain were made across the hijacked accounts of other notable individuals and entities.
Internal Systems Accessed

Twitter stated that it detected what it believes was a "coordinated social engineering attack" that successfully targeted employees with access to internal systems and tools. This access was then leveraged to gain control of numerous highly visible accounts. The company is investigating the full extent of malicious activity and potential data accessed by the perpetrators.
Financial Impact of the Scam

According to Blockchain.com, which monitors cryptocurrency transactions, a total of 12.58 bitcoins, valued at nearly US$116,000, were sent to email addresses provided in the scam tweets. This highlights the financial dimension of the attack, which aimed to defraud users through promises of amplified returns on their cryptocurrency investments. The incident led Twitter to temporarily disable posting from all verified accounts with a blue checkmark and lock down affected accounts.

Reading history

Hide →

This history is cleared when the page is closed.

Which high-profile individuals were targeted in the Twitter hack?

Loading

Was this article helpful?

Helpful

Not helpful

Report an issue

1

0

0

Share with friends