This archive report was first published on 16 July 2020.
Twitter Hit by Major Hack ¶
On July 16, 2020, Twitter was hit by a major hack that targeted high-profile users, including Elon Musk, Joe Biden, and Kanye West.
The hack, which was believed to have been carried out by scammers who targeted Twitter employees, resulted in the posting of fake messages offering Bitcoin giveaways. The messages, which were largely deleted, promised that people who sent $1,000 in Bitcoin would receive twice as much in return.
According to Blockchain.com, a total of 12.58 Bitcoin, worth almost $116,000, were sent to the email addresses mentioned in the fraudulent tweets.
Twitter has said it is 'investigating and taking steps' to fix the problem, and has locked down the affected accounts and removed the tweets posted by the hackers.
Chief executive Jack Dorsey said in a tweet that the company was 'diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened.'
US President Donald Trump's account, which has more than 83 million followers, was not among those hacked.
Twitter has been targeted by hackers in the past, including in March 2017, when the accounts of Amnesty International, the French economics ministry, and the BBC's North America service were broken into by hackers believed to have been loyal to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
