Skip to main content

FBI called to probe Twitter amid fears of future hacks



The FBI is leading an investigation into the July 15 Twitter hack, in which 31 high-profile Twitter accounts were compromised by a hacker and used to promote a digital currency investment scam.

According to Reuters, U.S. lawmakers that are concerned about future attacks on Twitter prompted the FBI's investigation.

"While this scheme appears financially motivated…imagine if these bad actors had a different intent to use powerful voices to spread disinformation to potentially interfere with our elections, disrupt the stock market, or upset our international relations," said U.S. Senator Ed Markey.

The hacker had the ability to take over any Twitter account, yet, used their power to promote a digital currency scam. The scam consisted of the hacker telling the millions of followers of the compromised accounts to send them digital currency, promising to send them double the amount that they were being sent.

However, it was a scam—the attacker did not send double the amount of digital currency to any of the individuals who participated. The attacker currently has a total of 7.411 BTC across the three wallet addresses they used to scam others (address 1, address 2, and address 3).

Timeline of attack
The hacker's first account takeover occurred at 2:16 p.m. EST when the hackers compromised @AngeloBTC, a well-known BitMEX trader's Twitter account.

In their first account takeover, the hackers requested that AngeloBTC's 150,000 followers send him a direct message, and send 0.1 BTC so that they could join his private Telegram group. However, there was no private Telegram group, and sender's got scammed out of their money.

Shortly afterward, the attacker began targeting Twitter accounts associated with well-known companies, executives, and celebrities, such as Apple, Jeff Bezos, and Kanye West.

Ultimately, the hacker was able to broadcast their digital currency investment scam to tens of millions of users and rake in more than $100,000.

We got lucky
We were honestly lucky that all the hackers did was promote a digital currency scam. Imagine if they used the compromised accounts, such as that of former U.S. President Barack Obama, or former Vice President Joe Biden, to start some sort of political conflict in which a foreign country retaliated.

When you consider all of the things the hacker could have done with the power that they had, it becomes concerning and alarming that they were able to breach Twitter in a way that gave them this power. That being said, it makes sense that the FBI is investigating Twitter, because if this were to happen again who knows what would happen.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What is iDice?

iDice is a dice betting Dapp fueled by the use of the Ethereum organize. eg. iDice lets in players do several things and having such an innovative new token on the ETHEREUM Platform, we had to write an article about this new project. Guess on the space by the use of keeping up iDice tokens and best of all 100% of all benefit iDice acquires is dispersed among token holders, related to the amount of tokens they dangle. iDice amusement code is decentralized and changeless. Such gigantic building fees highlight a rising requirement for experienced, fair and cast Dapps. iDice iDice is an control which gives a provably affordable and simple, virtual Ethereum dice betting Dapp. The house edge will be set intensely and token holders have an atypical esteem that is dependably equiva- loaned to the house edge. iDice has a fully simple provide code accessible at etherscan.io. The payout of recreations is many times speedy. Provably Fair iDice uses open provide blockchain...

DENT: THE World First Tokenizing Portable Information Trade

You may be confused on all the exciting Ethereum projects, but therefore i make sure to follow allof them and choose the best for you. If you want to read about a more interesting project, then DENT is the way to go. I will be able to advice on a few tokens that can be bought out there which clearly we likewise might occu : Estimated token incentive on ETH presented within the token deal: 152,000 ETH (Relying on sorts via crowdsale) 100 Billion (100,000,000,000) the amount of DENT Tokens made, of which 70% is bought on token deal, a minimum of 35% can be stored for customers with littler spending plans. For the ones of you who're eager about ico smartcontract prolong that we regularly listen in non-obligatory cryptographic cash or altcoin without a doubt no longer outdoor to the workings of undertakings like this. Evaluated swapping scale: 1 ETH = 400,000 DENT 30% will keep on DENT Wi-fi for DENT shopper motivating forces and compensations Bills may well be made via ETH...

Fake Libra scams pose new challenge for Facebook

Almost a year after Facebook's Libra was first announced, the outlook for the stablecoin looks starkly different. Once hailed as a game-changer for digital currency, the project has been beset by delays and regulatory difficulties. Now, fake Libra scams are presenting an increasingly pressing new challenge for Libra and Facebook, with a proliferation of websites claiming to offer investment schemes denominated in fake Libra tokens. Dante Disparte, Deputy Chairman and Head of Policy and Communications for The Libra Association, said the organization was now constantly working to suppress fake Libra scams: "As we become aware of these sites, we work diligently to address them. We respond to inquiries concerning the validity of these pages, indicating that the only official website is Libra.org." "We are still in the early stages of this project and work to address issues like these as they arise," Disparte told Finance Magnates, urging people to report the scams. ...