The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched an investigation into the Twitter attack that saw hackers hijack dozens of high-profile accounts to promote a bitcoin scam.
According to the BBC, the bureau noted the “accounts appear to have been compromised” and urged the public to stay vigilant as they were perpetuating “cryptocurrency fraud.” As CryptoGlobe reported, the accounts of Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Apple, Uber, Coinbase, Binance, and others were compromised in the attack.
They were used to promote a fake bitcoin giveaway that netted the attackers over $130,000 worth of BTC. In response to the security breach, Twitter revealed it was targeted with a social engineering attack that affected employees with “access to internal systems and tools.” In a series of tweets, the firm revealed:
We know they [the hackers] used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf.
The UK’sNational Cyber Security Centre has also issued a statement regarding the incident, in which it notes it’s aware of the attack on Twitter and has reached out to the company. It added:
While this appears to be an attack on the company rather than individual users, we would urge people to treat requests for money or sensitive information on social media with extreme caution.
Speaking to the BBC cybersecurity expert Dr. Alexi Drew, from King’s College London, noted this kind of incident could have been much worse in a different scenario, as compromising Twitter could be used to inflame tense situations.
As CryptoGlobe reported a 21-year old SIM swapper could be behind the attack, as other account hacks link him to the security breach. Security experts have, however, warned that the breach could have seen the fake giveaway be a part of a cover-up to hide “other malicious activity.”
Featured image via Unsplash.
