Biden, Gates, Obama among Twitter accounts hacked in Bitcoin scam

Published July 16, 2020
Twitter said employees with access to its internal systems had been successfully targeted by hackers who “used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf.” - AFP/File
Twitter said employees with access to its internal systems had been successfully targeted by hackers who “used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf.” - AFP/File

Unidentified hackers broke into the Twitter accounts of technology moguls, politicians, celebrities and major companies on Wednesday in an apparent Bitcoin scam.

The ruse included bogus tweets from former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Celebrities Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, were also hacked. The fake tweets tweets offered to send $2,000 for every $1,000 sent to an anonymous Bitcoin address.

There is no evidence that the owners of these accounts were targeted themselves. Instead, the hacks appeared designed to lure their Twitter followers into sending money to an anonymous Bitcoin account. The Biden campaign, for instance, said that Twitter’s integrity team “locked down the account within a few minutes of the breach and removed the related tweet”.

Obama’s office had no immediate comment. The FBI said it was aware of Twitter’s security breach, but declined further comment.

The apparently fake tweets were all quickly deleted, although the Associated Press was able to capture screenshots of several before they disappeared.

In several tweets, Twitter said it believes the incident was a “coordinated social engineering attack” that targeted some of its employees with access to internal systems and tools. They were then used to take control of many high-profile and verified accounts and tweet from them.

The company said it immediately locked down the affected accounts and removed the tweets posted by the attackers. It also temporarily blocked verified users from tweeting while the company investigated the issue.

Among the political figures targeted, the hack mostly appeared to target Democrats or other figures on the left, drawing comparisons to the 2016 campaign. US intelligence agencies established that Russia engaged in coordinated attempts to interfere in those US elections through social media tampering and various hacks, including targeting the various campaigns and major party organisations.

The hack might also be a simple demonstration of Twitter’s weak security controls as the US heads into the 2020 presidential election, a contest in which the service is likely to play an influential role.

The Bitcoin account mentioned in the fake tweets appears to have been created on Wednesday. By the end of the day, it had received almost 12.9 bitcoins, an amount currently valued at slightly more than $114,000. At some point during the day, roughly half that sum in bitcoin was withdrawn from the account.

Bezos, Gates and Musk are among the 10 richest people in the world, with tens of millions of followers on Twitter. The three men are worth a combined $362 billion, according to the latest calculations by Forbes magazine.

The same bogus offer cropped up a second time on Musk’s account, which has a history of sometimes befuddling tweets from the eccentric billionaire. Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gates, who has become one of the world’s leading philanthropists since stepping down as Microsoft CEO, confirmed the tweet wasn’t from him. “This appears to be part of a larger issue that Twitter is facing,” a spokesperson for the billionaire said in a statement.

This is hardly the first time hackers have created mischief on Twitter. Just last year, the account of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was broken into and used to tweet racist and vulgar comments.

The latest security breach prompted Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, to send a letter to Dorsey urging him to work with the FBI and the Justice Department on ways to improve Twitter’s security.

“A successful attack on your system’s servers represents a threat to all of your users’ privacy and data security,” Hawley wrote.

Investors also appeared to be concerned about potential fallout from the hack affecting Twitter’s usage. Twitter’s shares fell 3 per cent in extended trading after news of the hack broke.

Opinion

Editorial

A positive note
Updated 10 Feb, 2025

A positive note

With govt unable to press growth accelerator without upending fragile recovery, sufferings of low-middle-income households are unlikely to disappear soon.
Justice for all
10 Feb, 2025

Justice for all

ALONG with his domestic agenda, Donald Trump is busy ripping to shreds the post-World War II ‘rules-based...
Held back
10 Feb, 2025

Held back

IT is a crying shame how women are conspicuously absent from Pakistan’s civil services. Despite comprising half ...
Race against time
Updated 09 Feb, 2025

Race against time

While some bright spots emerged at Breathe Pakistan moot, we must streamline our climate governance.
Open door
09 Feb, 2025

Open door

THE door is still open for talks, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq has reminded the PTI. What matters, however,...
Football suspension
09 Feb, 2025

Football suspension

ONCE again, Pakistan has been ousted from the global football family. FIFA recently suspended the Pakistan Football...