While most people are online nowadays, these perpetrators are starting to attack one-by-one—getting your information from Twitter and falling into their trap.
Twitter hack keeps going until now
Twitter woes continue as alleged hacked accounts of some high profile personalities are under investigation. On July 15, last Wednesday, the Twitter world was abuzz by a tweet posted by some of the world’s most famous personalities. Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, and some big companies like Uber and Apple caught the world’s attention by their tweet pushing for cryptocurrency scam. Tweets posting links to bitcoin scams trigger doubts and speculation by the majority: Is their account hacked? Later on, it was confirmed they had been attacked.
According to Twitter, some have compelled an employee to grant access to their internal administrative tool, leading their investigation into the first step in identifying the root cause as they continue to gain more knowledge of the said attack. However, the social media platform cannot confirm if some of the direct messages were also accessed by these hackers, for which it receives criticism for the integrity of the privacy of its users. Resetting your password is not necessary at this time, says Twitter.
Where did this hacking start?
How did this massive attack start? On the said day, around 3 pm EDT, a cryptocurrency Twitter account tweeted that they will give back 5000 bitcoins to the community as they partner with CryptoForHealth. Minutes after posting this tweet, some cryptocurrency exchange accounts posted a similar tweet, and this time, twitter accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and TESLA’s Elon Musk tweeted the same.
Twitter issued a statement on the incident of mass hacking, saying that this is a socially engineered attack, and it is well coordinated. The company also stated that there is someone who coerced their employees into their internal systems and tools and provided them access to these accounts. Twitter said it would share with the public any other intrusions made by the attackers as they continue to conduct investigations.
Meanwhile, it is hard to be enticed by big personalities’ tweets about the bitcoin scam, but still, many people are reported to have fallen into this trap. Some experts say it was highly linked to the people behind the SIM-Swap hijacking via social media accounts. SIM Swapping became a rampant crime this year when employees were coerced or bribed to provide details of targeted accounts through mobile numbers and social media companies.
Days before the Twitter attack, some activity was detected. Actors in the SIM swapping community, which includes changing email addresses to a social media account, can be tied to any other social media account. Changing email addresses and tying them up with other Twitter accounts comes at a hefty price. These SIM swap hijackers can also provide direct access to other twitter accounts for a price ranging from $2,000.00 to $3,000.00 apiece.
Attacks on Twitter accounts took place mostly through Admin Tools, where hackers can change email addresses without notifying the owner or suspending multi-factor authentication. Some Twitter accounts have been suspended, and their tweets removed simply because these accounts posted internal admin tool screens. Twitter also believes that these people are behind the hacking of its CEO Dorsey’s account. As they dig deeper into the issue, multiple people have been identified as being behind the attack, and the story continues to unfold.
Images used courtesy of Mark Warncken/YouTube Screenshot