James Martin / CNET
A week after Hackers hijacked high-profile users' Twitter accounts The social media company, including former US President Barack Obama and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, announced on Wednesday that attackers had been able to access the direct messages from 36 of these accounts.
The social media company also said that an elected official's Twitter inbox was accessed in the Netherlands, but that "there is no evidence that another former or current elected official accessed his DMs." It is unclear whether the attackers were able to compose messages and send them to other users. They could also view direct messages.
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130 users' Twitter accounts were targeted as part of a Bitcoin scam last Wednesday when hackers posted tweets to solicit donations via Bitcoin after taking control of those accounts. The target accounts included dozens of internationally known personalities from politics, technology and entertainment.
Though Twitter has faced cryptocurrency fraud problems in the past, the scale of this hack appears unprecedented, taking a closer look at the vulnerabilities of one of the world's most popular social media platforms internationally. Twitter declined to request a full list of target accounts, citing the ongoing investigation.
"Everyone is asking me to give something back, and now it's time," says a tweet from Gates' account that promised to double all payments to a Bitcoin address for the next 30 minutes.
In a tweet from Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk said: "I feel generous about Covid-19," said Musk's tweet. "I will double every BTC payment sent to my BTC address for the next hour. Good luck and stay safe out there!"
All tweets were then deleted, and verified Twitter accounts with a blue checkmark were temporarily silenced as part of the company's initial responses to the hack. However, the brazen hack and Twitter's response have raised new concerns among cyber security experts that social media platforms, which have become an increasingly important source of news and information, can no longer keep their operations safe.
On Friday, Twitter announced that 45 accounts of attackers and tweets Data was downloaded from eight non-verified accounts. Obama, Gates, Musk, and other VIP users such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and rapper Kanye West, whose accounts have been compromised, have checked all Twitter accounts. When users download their Twitter data, they include photos, videos, an address book, and other information - and even direct messages. This means that hackers have been initiated into a total of 44 Twitter inboxes.
Twitter believes the attackers were able to bypass security protection after "successfully manipulating a small number of employees and using their credentials to access Twitter's internal systems". The company did not disclose whether the employees were misled or bribed to hand over these cards.
