In a massive social media hacking incident, several high profile-Twitter accounts in the US were hacked. Accounts of public figures like Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Joe Bidden and others were hacked to run a bitcoin scam. Twitter tried to regain control and delete the messages, but some of the handles were posting similar messages even after that. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted about the unfortunate incident and said, "We will feel terrible that this happened."

The Twitter hack mainly attacked top politicians and celebrities in the United States, with massive followings, and the attack reportedly helped a Bitcoin wallet receive over $100,000 via at least 300 transactions. Twitter Accounts Hacked: CEO Jack Dorsey Says 'We All Feel Terrible This Happened' After Major US Twitter Accounts Hacked in Bitcoin Scam.

Twitter Hack Incident?

Around 4 pm Wednesday in the US, these accounts started tweeting a message saying any bitcoin sent to a link in the tweet will be sent back doubled. The tweet further mentioned that the offer would last for 30 minutes. Among the accounts that were one of the first to be hacked was Apple, Uber, followed by Elon Musk, Bill Gates. Soon the Twitter accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos were also compromised. Similarly, Twitter handles of boxer Floyd Mayweather and celebrity Kim Kardashian were also affected.

According to a report on the Verge, the account of Tesla CEO's issued a strange tweet at 4:17 pm ET which read, "I'm feeling generous because of Covid-19. I'll double any BTC payment sent to my BTC address for the next hour. Good luck, and stay safe out there!" The tweet also contained a bitcoin address, probably one associated with the hacker's crypto wallet

Hacked Message:

Here's what the Twitter Hack Incident Was, Check Video:

 

Action Taken by Twitter After Hacking Incident Reported:

Soon after the incident came to the light, Twitter issued a statement saying, "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." In addition to this, the social networking platform also halted the ability for some accounts to send new tweets after the attack.

Twitter support posted a message saying-“You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address the incident,” Twitter Support tweeted. “We’re continuing to limit the ability to Tweet, reset your password, and some other account functionalities while we look into this. Thanks for your patience, “ it further added.

Here's what Twitter support tweeted:

Jack Dorsey Statement:

Commenting on it, Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO said, "Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened. We’re diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened."

Here's what Jack Dorsey tweeted:

According to Twitter Support, the “coordinated social engineering attack” was executed by people who “successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools”. “We know they used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf. We’re looking into what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed and will share more here as we have it,” another tweet said. Twitter said that even as it has limited functionality of the affected accounts, it also restricted access to internal systems and tools.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 16, 2020 03:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).