Bitcoin hackers target Twitter accounts of celebs including Obama, Elon Musk and Kanye West
Twitter accounts of several high profile personalities, including SpaceX chief Elon Musk, technopreneur, and philanthropist Bill Gates and Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden were hacked in a coordinated attack according to the social media platform. Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Kanye West, Michael Bloomberg, Kim Kardashian as well as Apple and Uber official accounts were also targeted.
The double back offer
Musk, Gates, and Bezos’s accounts urged people to invest a $1,000 in bitcoin and get double the amount back. Bill Gates verified the account tweeted, “Everyone is asking me to give back,” a tweet from Mr. Gates’ account said. “You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000.” The account was suspended within minutes of the tweets and reinstated after the tweet was deleted.
Elon Musk’s account urged the followers to send a $1,000 to a specific wallet and get double back if they sent it within 30 minutes. The tweet suggested that Musk felt generous because of COVID-19. A similar tweet was sent out from the Bezos account as well. Three hundred payments were made to the dubious wallet, with transactions over $100,000.
Twitter responds
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded to the situation by tweeting, “Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened.” He also reassured that the matter was being dealt with, and the team will make it right.
The company’s spokesperson also had some reassuring words for the platform users. “We’re looking into what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed,” he said. “We’ve taken significant steps to limit access to internal systems and tools while our investigation is ongoing.”
Many experts have expressed their concern about the level of the hack, some calling it the worst one on any social media platform. It is undoubtedly very concerning that even the verified accounts were hacked at such as large scale.