Twitter hack: Obama, Musk, Gates and Kanye accounts hacked by Bitcoin scam in an unprecedented attack
Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are among many prominent US names targetted by hackers on Twitter in an apparent Bitcoin scam.
Their official accounts also requested donations in the cryptocurrency.
“Everyone is asking me to give back,” a tweet from Mr Gates’ account said. “You send $1000, I send you back $2000.”
Twitter said it was a “coordinated” attack targeting its employees “with access to internal systems and tools.”
“We know they [the hackers] used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf,” the company said in a series of tweets.
It added that “significant steps” were taken to limit access to such internal systems and tools while the company’s investigation was ongoing.
Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey tweeted: “Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened.”
‘Worst hack of a major social media platform’
Twitter took the extraordinary step of stopping verified accounts marked with a blue tick from tweeting altogether.
Password reset requests were also denied and some other “account functions” disabled.
Dimitri Alperovich, who co-founded cyber-security company CrowdStrike, told Reuters news agency: “This appears to be the worst hack of a major social media platform yet.”
Elon Musk’s account appeared to offer to double any Bitcoin payment sent to the address of his digital wallet “for the next 30 minutes.”
“I’m feeling generous because of Covid-19,” the tweet added, along with a Bitcoin link address.
Other people targetted included:
- Kanye West
- Kim Kardashian
- Barack Obama
- Joe Biden
- Mike Bloomberg
- Uber
- Apple
The Biden campaign said Twitter had “locked down the account with a few minutes of the breach and removed the related tweet.”
A spokesman for Bill Gates said: “This appears to be part of a larger issue that Twitter is facing.”
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