On Wednesday, many high-profile accounts on social media found themselves the targets of a Bitcoin hacking scam. As of right now, Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Kanye West are amongst the various figures who have had their accounts hacked. In addition to these figures, companies’ accounts, such as those of Apple and Uber, were affected by this scam. According to Tech Crunch, these accounts have been hacked as a part of a cryptocurrency scam.
Many of those accounts above spread similar messages, asking their followers to send Bitcoin to get double the amount back. One of the messages, which could be found on Bitcoin’s official Twitter account as well as on Ripple and Coin Desk’s, read, “We have partnered with CryptoForHealth and are giving back 5000 BTC to the community.” They then linked out to a website in order to try to get users to send over valuable information. The issue has subsequently taken Twitter by storm, with the social media site even implementing some significant changes to get a handle on the matter. Twitter has temporarily suspended verified users on the platform from posting, which the site has reportedly done to prevent other accounts from experiencing this issue, as well.
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Twitter has since addressed this issue directly on their Twitter Support account. Shortly before 6 p.m. ET, the account wrote, “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 a subsequent message, the social media platform cautioned that users might experience some problems with their accounts during this time. They added, “You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident.”
It’s currently unclear how these hacks took place. Although, security researchers have said that the hackers obtained full control of the affected accounts and changed the email address associated with them, making it all the more difficult for users to regain access to their accounts. The website that the hackers linked to in these tweets has subsequently been pulled offline. Kristaps Ronka, the chief executive of Namesilo, the domain registrar that was used by the hackers, told Tech Crunch that the company suspended the website “on the first report” that they received about this issue.
