It’s been a field day on Twitter, after high profile verified accounts were hijacked to spread a bitcoin scam. Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s account was one of the compromised accounts, alongside other notables such as Apple, Bill Gates, Uber and Barack Obama.
This is a scam! Beware https://t.co/A597VbQMBc
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) July 15, 2020
“I’m feeling generous because of Covid-19,” tweeted Musk’s account after it was hijacked. “I’ll double any BTC [bitcoin] payment sent to my BTC address for the next hour. Good luck and stay safe out there!”, added the Musk tweet.
The fake tweet was later deleted, but subsequent tweets also came out of the Musk Twitter account, being pinned to his profile.
According to Motherboard, the hack was an inside job, with a Twitter employee being paid to access an internal tool for the hack, claims unnamed sources.
CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, said it was a “Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened.”
Twitter quickly paused password resets and eventually stopped verified accounts from tweeting, to mitigate the hack.
Internally, we’ve taken significant steps to limit access to internal systems and tools while our investigation is ongoing. More updates to come as our investigation continues.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 16, 2020
Earlier this evening, Twitter said “Internally, we’ve taken significant steps to limit access to internal systems and tools while our investigation is ongoing. More updates to come as our investigation continues.”
