Twitter Says Hacker Group Targeted 130 Accounts
Twitter says that the group behind the “Crypto for Health” hack earlier this week had targeted more than 130 accounts.
- The social media platform said in a thread Friday morning that hackers, who are yet to be identified, gained full control of a “small subset” of accounts; using them to send tweets asking for bitcoin.
- These included verified accounts for mainstream figures such as ex-President Barack Obama and Elon Musk; crypto personalities like Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and Justin Sun; and companies, including both Coinbase and CoinDesk.
- Users sent more than $125,000-worth of bitcoin by the time Twitter got a handle of the situation and locked down verified accounts.
- Twitter is investigating whether the hacking group accessed non-public data.
- One former employee told The Financial Times the company had lax security protocols, giving full admin control to hundreds of engineers.
- Hackers hijacked Twitter twice in 2009; at the time, the Federal Trade Commission criticized the company for “serious lapses in data security.”
- U.S. lawmakers have already started airing concerns over the latest breach, citing the damage that might have occurred if President Trump’s account had been hacked.
Disclosure
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.
