Twitter hack takes world by storm
On the 16th of July 2020, a string of hacks on high profile verified twitter users as part of a bitcoin scam flooded news agencies and forums across the internet. What was this hack, how did it happen and what are the implications of said hack? Let’s find out.
The hack lasted for about 1.5 hours where hackers took control of twitter accounts belonging to major celebrities and tweeted out a crypto wallet address, with the claim that any amount sent to that wallet will be doubled and returned. It is estimated that within the short amount of time it was active they earned over 110,000 USD through a potential reach of over 350 million people.
Amongst the accounts targeted are high profile politicians such as Barack Obama, Joe Biden and major celebrities such as Ye (Read Kanye West for non-believers) and Floyd Mayweather. All of whom can garner widespread support from their followers. Apart from individuals, the accounts of companies such as Apple and Uber were also compromised. This could easily be interpreted as genuine by the common populace and could lead to major problems and losses
This seems to be an attack targeted at Twitter itself and not motivated by a singular individual target. Speculations have risen regarding how the hackers secured access to these accounts, some theories suggest targeted phishing attacks on the celebrities while others more realistically depict a possible flaw in the authentication systems in place to protect these accounts. At the same time certain concerns have been raised with regards to the possibility of rogue employees within the company working in tandem with the hackers.
Twitter’s official response to this was that it was a targeted attack on employees with access to internal systems and tools. They are set to brief the US Senate about the attack next week.
In response to this attack Twitter employed some emergency responses such as preventing some verified accounts from tweeting altogether for a duration as well as blocking all password reset requests for the same duration. However this breach of security has raised a lot of genuine concerns. Social media today plays a big part in our daily lives, even in certain critical conditions such as politics and news reporting. If the security of twitter is in question it is a grave matter since twitter is already the weapon of choice for the most powerful man in the world, the big orange. Trump’s tweets can have drastic effects on public stability in the states as well as markets.
Think of the implications this would have had if it was in the middle of a major situation such as the CAA/NRC protests or the BLM riots in the USA where twitter was an active part of de-escalatory efforts. If these accounts were compromised and could tweet out instigating content we could see existing riots worsening as well as new riots starting. Even in India where mob lynchings can source from whatsapp forwards, this bears grave consequences.
Who are the perps?
Some sources list a website cryptoforhealth.com (don’t visit it, it’s probably not safe) to which certain hacked tweets were directed. They set up an Instagram account claiming responsibility for the attack and claimed that it was a “charity attack” and that their money would find its way to the right place.
The name used to register the email account used is Anthony Elias which seems to be a smart play on “An Alias” and insofar there has been no success in tracking down the individual.
There’s my answer to anyone who asks me why I don’t use twitter, I just don’t trust their security standards. Don't @ me bro.
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