Twitter Accounts Hacked In US- Bitcoin Scam

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Context

In what is being dubbed as one of the “most brazen online attacks in memory”,
The most powerful Twitter accounts in America were all tweeting about Bitcoins on Wednesday afternoon.
Around 4 pm Wednesday in the US, many high-profile accounts started tweeting a message saying-
Any bitcoin sent to a link in the tweet will be sent back doubled, an offer the tweet said last just for 30 minutes.

The link displayed in the tweet received contributions totalling $100,000 from atleast 300 transactions.
These kind of hacks are not uncommon on Twitter,
But the concerted attack in a limited period appears to be one-of-a-kind, aimed at garnering as much money as possible in a short span of time.

According to Twitter Support,
The “coordinated social engineering attack” was executed by people who “successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools”.
“We know they used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf.
We’re looking into what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed and will share more here as we have it,”
Clearly, the vulnerability that has been exploited was within the Twitter systems and not on the user side.

One, transferring money across countries is the easiest with crypto assets since it does not involve any paperwork, central bank permission, and so on.
Two, there is also no limit on the sums that can be transferred through Bitcoins, unlike conventional money.
Three, an audit trail is also relatively difficult to establish in Bitcoins, compared to money transfer through conventional bank accounts.

The implications are huge given the fact that the most powerful and popular accounts have been hacked.
The incident is also critical because it has happened in an election year.
Last elections, the conversation in the US was also about social media being manipulated for political gain.