Exploit: Data Breach, Hacking
Company: Twitter
Industry: Social Media
Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/twitter-breach-hack-1.5651675

In what some are labeling as the worst social media platform hack to-date, several high-profile twitter accounts were targeted in a highly sophisticated and coordinated attack. The accounts belonging to some of the world’s richest and most influential people, including celebrities, politicians, and companies, were targeted in the large scale Bitcoin scam.  

Hackers simultaneously gained access of verified accounts and sent out similar messages to millions of unsuspecting followers. Tweets implying that the account holder was “feeling grateful” and wanted to start “giving back to (their) communities” were followed by claims that any payment sent to their bitcoin wallet would be doubled and sent back to the sender- a notorious crypto scam technique.  

Twitter accounts belonging to Elon Musk, Apple and Joe Biden were initially compromised. The hackers then went on to target Kim Kardashian West, Kanye West, Bill Gates, Mike Bloomberg, Barack Obama, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, Uber, Wendy’s and more.

In response, Twitter replied with a series of tweets stating that the attack targeted its employees “with access to internal systems and tools,” and that “significant steps” had been taken to limit further access (stopping many verified accounts from being able to tweet, denying password reset requests, and disabling some account functions).

As investigations are ongoing, it is important to urge people to take extreme caution when handling requests for any type of currency or for the exchange of sensitive information through social media or any other type of communication platform.

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