This archive report was first published on 16 July 2020.
On July 15, 2020, Twitter faced a major security breach when the accounts of several prominent US figures were hacked by online Bitcoin scammers.
Among those affected were former US President Barack Obama, former US Vice President and Democratic Party Presidential candidate Joe Biden, billionaires Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk.
The hackers used the compromised accounts to send out tweets asking users to send them Bitcoin in exchange for double the amount.
"Everyone is asking me to give back," a tweet from Mr. Gates' account said. "You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000."
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey acknowledged the breach, saying, "Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened."
He added, "We're diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened."
As a precautionary measure, Twitter temporarily suspended tweeting for many verified accounts, including those of the affected individuals.
However, by 20:30 EDT (00:30 GMT Thursday), users with verified accounts were able to send tweets again, although Twitter stated that it was still working on a fix.
