Twitter accounts for Biden, Obama, Gates, Musk, and others are hacked
Twitter appeared to be essentially powerless to stop them.
SAN FRANCISCO — One by one, the Twitter accounts of some of the most prominent people in American business and politics started displaying the same message Wednesday afternoon: Send Bitcoin to the link below and you will double your money. The names included Joe Biden and Barack Obama, Kanye West and Bill Gates, and countless more.
But it was all a scam, the result of one of the most brazen online attacks in memory.
One of the messages posted on Twitter on Wednesday.
A first wave of attacks went after cryptocurrency-related companies and personalities at midday on the East Coast, but over the course of a few hours the prominence of the victims increased. Many of the tweets were quickly removed, but in some cases similar tweets were sent again from the same accounts.
Twitter appeared to be essentially powerless to stop them. The company eventually disabled broad swathes of its service as it worked to stop the attack. “You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident,” the company said.
The attack was a major show of force by attackers who seized a key means of communication for a Who’s Who list of Americans. The hackers did not use their access to take aim at any important institutions or infrastructure like the stock market — instead deciding to just ask for Bitcoin.
But the attack was frightening because the hackers could have easily caused much more havoc. There was quickly speculation on what would happened had the attackers instead tried to move the financial markets or sow political chaos. The attack exposed the vulnerability of a company, Twitter, that has become the nation’s de facto real-time news source.
The messages were a version of a long-running scam in which hackers pose as public figures on Twitter, and promise to match or even triple any funds that are sent to their Bitcoin wallets. In the past, hackers have created fake accounts to try to convince users that the funds will be going to public figures like Musk or Gates. The attacks Wednesday were the first time the real accounts of public figures were used in the scam.
Accounts belonging to Musk, the Tesla chief executive, and Gates, the Microsoft mogul, were among the first prominent Twitter accounts to be compromised. Within the hour, West’s account was hit along with many more.
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