Another massive bitcoin hack is in the books, though this one is a bit different in that it involves Twitter, one of the largest social media platforms across the globe.
High-Profile Twitter Accounts Overtaken
To be fair, Twitter has been utilized to garner illicit bitcoin funds before from unsuspecting victims. Elon Musk – who was one of the more prominent figures at the center of this event – can vouch for that, though never has such an attack as the one that occurred 48 hours ago been witnessed. It is unique in that it has involved several high-profile figures, and despite all the work that allegedly went into it, the attack hasn’t really amounted to much.
Among some of the leading figures in America to have had their Twitter accounts overtaken by hackers include former president Barack Obama, current democratic nominee frontrunner Joe Biden, and SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. All three had their Twitter accounts allegedly intercepted by hackers, who enticed unsuspecting users and followers to send BTC to anonymous crypto addresses.
The big question at the time of writing is, “Why go through all this trouble and why take over such high-ranking accounts if you were only looking to steal so little?” At press time, the total amount taken in BTC funds is just over $121,000, with the largest single transaction amounting to roughly $42,000 from a single individual.
This really isn’t much when compared to past thefts such as Mt. Gox or Coincheck.
The hackers arguably put themselves at risk by taking over the accounts of such prominent figures. To go through such tactics suggests that the plan was big, but when one looks at how much was ultimately taken, the motivation becomes questionable. In all, the hackers received approximately 400 separate BTC payments.
This could be attributed to the idea that perhaps crypto holders are becoming wiser to some of the fraudulent and scam-based activities that are meandering throughout the space. They are beginning to recognize some of the shady practices and tactics being utilized to garner funds. The hackers sought to gain control of Elon Musk’s account, who’s been at the center of such attacks in the past, so this may have been something of a giveaway at this point to most crypto enthusiasts.
A Relatively Small Amount
Either way, the damage could have been a whole lot worse considering who was involved, so perhaps there’s something to be thankful for at the end of the day. Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson commented on the low amount of BTC stolen, claiming:
Given the scale of the compromise, I don’t think that’s very much, but what we often see with these types of exploits is that the exploit itself can be very sophisticated, but they’re not very good at monetizing it.