Technology, Business

July 16, 2020

Twitter accounts of celebrities and politicians hacked

Source: Pixabay (Pete Linforth) 
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The Gist

Twitter accounts belonging to former US President Barack Obama, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, singer Kanye West, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and many others were hacked yesterday in a coordinated attack. 

The List

  • The list of twitter accounts hacked is extensive and includes virtually every notable individual in the American public and private sector. 
  • Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, current Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, and the official Apple Twitter account were also affected. 
  • All accounts sent out a series of tweets promising to double users' Bitcoin as financial relief for the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. 
  • Twitter stopped the attack by temporarily blocking all verified accounts from sending tweets. 
  • Those affected are perplexed as to how someone could have accessed their accounts, given that they had two-factor authentication which would require to have access to their mobile devices to log in. 
  • It appears that Twitter itself was hacked. 
  • A website called CryptoForHealth which was registered the same day as the attack has provided a lead as to who is behind the hacks but no conclusive information has been revealed as of yet. 

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