Twitter said Friday that hackers compromised around 130 user accounts in order to post malicious messages in a bitcoin scam Wednesday.
“Based on what we know, right now, we believe approximately 130 accounts were targeted by the hackers in some way as part of the incident,” Twitter Support posted Friday.
“For a small subset of these accounts, the attackers were able to gain control of the accounts and then send Tweets from those accounts,” Twitter Support said. (Related: Kayleigh McEnany: Trump Is Staying On Twitter Despite Massive Bitcoin Hack)
Based on what we know right now, we believe approximately 130 accounts were targeted by the attackers in some way as part of the incident. For a small subset of these accounts, the attackers were able to gain control of the accounts and then send Tweets from those accounts.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 17, 2020
Senior Communications Manager Nicholas Pacilio told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an email the Twitter Support post was all the information they were able to release.
Hackers took control and posted from various verified accounts Wednesday, claiming that if twitter users sent in Bitcoin, they would receive double the amount in Bitcoin back. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama were among the most prominent users compromised by the hack.
“I am giving back to the community. All bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled! If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000,” the now-deleted tweet from Biden said.
“Only doing this for 30 minutes,” the deleted tweet added.
#BREAK Former President Obama’s account now also part of this Twitter compromise. pic.twitter.com/tYbbCnPsmJ
— Donie O’Sullivan (@donie) July 15, 2020
In order to investigate the hacking, Twitter locked verified user accounts Wednesday, preventing the users from posting. For national security purposes, the FBI is investigating into the bitcoin hacking campaign, Reuters reported.
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