Editorial | Hackers tweet serious warning to the world
- Compromising the online accounts of the rich and famous is one thing, but trying to influence an election or even starting a war is quite another
The recent hack of the social media platform Twitter and taking over of dozens of accounts of the rich and famous may have been a simple money grab, but the implications go far wider.
Among those who unwittingly tweeted a bitcoin scam to millions of followers last week were Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Tesla’s Elon Musk, US Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, celebrities Kanye West and his wife Kim Kardashian, and the firms Apple and Uber.
If private messages and passwords and the like were also taken, reputations and business interests could also be harmed. But it is the nature of the breach and what it could mean in a political or domestic or global security setting that is most worrying; the giants of the internet world have to constantly update safety mechanisms and ensure stringent policing.
The attack was noticed when the accounts of verified Twitter users began sending out messages with the classic scamming promise of doubling the amount of money sent to a specified link, in this case US$1,000 in bitcoin.
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Twitter was quick to step in and close affected accounts, but at least US$100,000 was forwarded. The company believes the scammers were able to get around account security safeguards by gaining access to administrative tools. That implies someone with administrative rights may have inadvertently or intentionally granted the hackers access.