Twitter Hack: Breach Compromises Many Public Figures Including Musk, Obama; Twitter Investigating Incident
In what appears to be an organised cryptocurrency scam targeting major crypto accounts on Twitter as well as public figures, the Twitter accounts of Bill Gates and Elon Musk appear to have been hacked, or fallen prey to a crypto-related scam. The scam posted tweets on behalf of Gates and Musk, among other popular crypto accounts on Twitter, stating a Bitcoin wallet address along with the promise of sending back double the amount of BTC if a user sends a certain amount to the designated wallet first. The scam appeared to happen in two rounds, wherein the scammers posted similar Bitcoin-scamming tweets for the second time from both Gates’ and Musk’s accounts, after their first tweets were deleted.
Update 3, 4:10AM: Twitter has taken cognisance of the matter, and stated that it is investigating the incident. Posting from verified accounts have been paused as of now. Compromised accounts now include Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Kim Kardashian West, Warren Buffet, major crypto trading platforms and more. The platform is presently working on a restricted mode of sorts.
We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly.— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 15, 2020
Update 2, 3:20AM: Unconfirmed tweets claim that the total volume of the scam has crossed $105,000 (~Rs 79 lac) as of now. It has taken roughly 15 minutes for the total BTC scam volume from the Twitter hack to reportedly increase close to 2.5x. Official statements still awaited.
Update 1, 3:05AM: The Twitter hack appears to be far wider than two accounts, with Apple’s and Jeff Bezos' accounts reportedly targeted as well. Alleged tweets on the matter cite publicly available data to claim that the scam has so far seen over 160 incoming transactions to the mentioned BTC wallet, amounting to collections of over $40,000 (~Rs 30 lac) in Bitcoin already.
As of 2:30AM IST, all of the tweets from both Gates and Musk’s accounts have been deleted. The message written in the scam tweet appeared typical to a phishing or crypto-jacking scam that are more frequently spotted in email inboxes. For instance, the message posted on behalf of Gates read, “Everyone is asking me to give back, and now is the time. I am doubling all payments sent to my BTC address for the next 30 minutes. You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000. Only going on for 30 minutes! Enjoy!” This message was combined with a crypto wallet ID.
The scam message posted from Musk’s profile was more obvious to being detected as fake. It said, “You know I living giving back to my community. I’m doubling all BTC payments sent to my address. You send $1,000 and I will send #$2,000 back! Tell your family & friends! Only going on for 30 minutes. (sic)” The first tweet posted from Musk’s account was equally out of shape, with the tweet claiming Musk to be feeling “greatful”.
While scams such as these are fairly common, what’s concerning is how the scammers gained access to high profile Twitter accounts such as Gates’ and Musk’s. Even though an official statement is awaited at the moment, the structuring of the tweets, coupled with the claims posted on the tweets, all point to the same perpetrator behind this crypto-jacking effort. Twitter is yet to issue a statement on the matter, and clarifications are awaited from both Gates and Musk’s communication teams as well.
Interestingly, Ryan Mac of Buzzfeed reported that the mentioned bitcoin wallets appeared to be receiving incoming transactions as well. What’s also worth noting is how the attackers appeared to have tuned their tweets to suit the personalities they targeted, adopting the general tone in which both Gates and Musk generally tweet. While Gates is generally reserved with his posts on Twitter, Musk’s unfiltered rants, tirades and musings have been viciously popular in the past. With a potential scam that may have led to an undisclosed amount of crypto theft from these tweets, it remains to be seen what official communication is issued from these accounts, as well as Twitter itself.
Elon Musk and Many Other High Profile Twitter Accounts Hacked, used in Bitcoin Scam making nearly $60,000
Elon Musk and many other famous faces and companies have seemingly had their Twitter accounts hacked, and used for a scam that has generated almost $60,000 USD in bitcoin.
While BNO has not reported the story formally on their website, they have tweeted that “nearly $60,000 has been paid so far.” All of the tweets masquerading as real companies of people ask users to pay into the same Twitter account. The scam involves the account claiming to repay those who donate to a bitcoin wallet will receive a greater amount in return.
According to The Verge, affected accounts that begun springing up after 4 p.m. ET include Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Kanye West, Wiz Khalifa, MrBeast, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Mike Bloomberg, Apple, Uber, Cash App and other “major” crypto-currency focused accounts.
Elon Musk’s name has been by Bitcoin scams before. Accounts would pass around screenshots of a fake Elon Musk tweet, claiming they offered bitcoin, with other accounts replying in gratitude. These fake screenshots even included fake Niche Gamer tweets in the replies (image via TrustNodes).
According to Mempool (a bitcoin transaction tracking website) the offending account currently has $57,453.18 USD in bitcoin. While there are few legitimate places to spend bitcoin, that has not stopped people creating “bitcoin farms” (allowing computers to be used for blockchain transactions in exchange for some bitcoin), or investing into crypto-currencies.
We will keep you informed as we learn more.
UPDATE: We are hearing claims that a Twitter employee or Twitter itself has been hacked, exploited, or been a victim of someone handing out information required to access Twitter employee access levels. However, some who initially proposed it could be something like this later suggested it may be due to an exploit with a third-party app.
We are currently attempting to verify these claims.
UPDATE 2: Twitter Support has tweeted the following: “We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly.”
UPDATE 3: Twitter are now reportedly blocking the bitcoin address from being posted on their platform [1, 2]. However, this may also be affecting individuals talking about Bitcoin in general, as oppose to sharing the bitcoin address.
Coinbase, a website dedicated to trading crypto-currency, has also reportedly blacklisted the bitcoin address.
UPDATE 4: Will Chamberlin- lawyer, Editor-in-Chief of Human Events, and Senior Counsel at the Internet Accountability Project has tweeted the claim that “every blue checkmark account is now locked.” Buzzfeed journalist Brandon Wall has also allegedly verified this.
UPDATE 5: We are hearing unverified claims that non-verified, non-high profile Twitter accounts are also posting the Bitcoin scam. However, many are joking (not posting actual bitcoin wallet codes, or using the phrase “I am giving back to my followers” or “community“), or may only be pretending to have been hacked.
UPDATE 6: Twitter Support has further tweeted “You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident.” No distinction was seemingly made between verified and unverified users.
UPDATE 7: Wired reports the scam has now made “well over $100,000.”
UPDATE 8: The Verge Senior Editor Tom Warren has confirmed (by tweeting from his verified Twitter account) that verified users can tweet again.
UPDATE 9: Those posting fake versions of the scam’s message, even as a joke, may be getting locked out of their accounts. This is according to Jeremy Kaplowitz, Editor in Chief of Hard Drive.
UPDATE 10: Scam Alert, a website dedicated to letting users report crypto-currency scams, reports the scammer may has “lifetime earnings” in their Bitcoin wallet of $118,408 USD.
UPDATE 11: Twitter Support has issued the following statement:
“We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack 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. Once we became aware of the incident, we immediately locked down the affected accounts and removed Tweets posted by the attackers. We also limited functionality for a much larger group of accounts, like all verified accounts (even those with no evidence of being compromised), while we continue to fully investigate this. This was disruptive, but it was an important step to reduce risk. Most functionality has been restored but we may take further actions and will update you if we do. We have locked accounts that were compromised and will restore access to the original account owner only when we are certain we can do so securely. Internally, we’ve taken significant steps to limit access to internal systems and tools while our investigation is ongoing. More updates to come as our investigation continues.”
Twitter also stated “Most accounts should be able to Tweet again,” prior to this statement. There have also been claims that the Twitter Support account was hacked to produce the bitcoin scam message, however this appears to have been an edited image.
UPDATE 12: Possibly as a result of the hack, images of the Admin panel for Twitter. We have included additional redaction of email addresses.
Through the use of Forensically (a free online photo forensic tool), we feel the images may be genuine (however the website is still in beta, and increasing certain parameters can result in false-positive results).
In the third screenshot, we see a user has been marked with labels such as “Compromised,” “Trends Blacklist,” “Search Blacklist,” and “ReadOnly”. Twitter has long been “shadow banning” users- preventing their tweets from being seen by others while the user is unaware.
While Twitter admitted to limiting an abusive tweet’s visibility, resulted in Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey having to testify to the US House Energy and Commerce Committee. This was due to allegations of censorship, especially aimed at those with republican beliefs. Twitter’s terms of service (as of January 2020) effectively wrote shadow banning into their terms [1, 2, 3].
On May 28th, 45th President of the United States Donald Trump has signed an executive order on “Preventing Online Censorship.” This came after Twitter marked one of his tweets as “deceptive.” President Trump had expressed concern that mail-in ballots “will be anything less than substantially fraudulent.”
In summation, the executive order ascertains that social media is the modern “public square.” As such they would lose their protections from being liable for what users post, if they use “their power over a vital means of communication to engage in deceptive or pretextual actions stifling free and open debate by censoring certain viewpoints.”
If the above screenshots are genuine, it would seem that Twitter may be preventing users from seeing genuine search results and trends. Whether this is to prevent the spread of illegal content, or those parameters include anything else, is unknown.
UPDATE 13: Vice reports that some users who have been tweeting images of the panel are being banned (and screenshots being deleted) as it violates their terms of service.
They also report that the hackers gained access via a Twitter “insider.” Citing two anonymous sources who claimed they took over high-profile accounts, one of them stated “We used a rep that literally done all the work for us.” They confirm the hack was conducted by a tool Twitter use. After the accounts were accessed, the email address was changed.
Four sources showed Vice screenshots of the internal tool. Vice did not confirm if this was the admin panel seen in the screenshots above, however other screenshots they show in their article appear identical to it. Vice also describes the tool as a “panel” at several points.
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The Carlyle Group Acquires Jagex, Leading Online Video Game Company and Creator of RuneScape
Acquisition announced as Jagex celebrates 20 years of RuneScape, making it one of the world’s longest running and most successful online video game franchises
Global investment firm The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) today announced it has acquired Jagex, a leading developer and publisher of video games. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Headquartered in Cambridge, UK, and employing more than 450 people, Jagex is one of the largest and most successful British video game studios, developing and publishing video games on PC and mobile. The company is best known for its online role-playing living game franchise RuneScape, which has attracted almost 300million player accounts since its launch 20 years ago. Jagex has grown its RuneScape titles to a $1billion franchise1. The titles, which are played by a vibrant community of millions all around the world, are currently enjoying peak global popularity. 2020 saw record numbers of subscribing players, more than half of which are in the United States.
The Carlyle Group is one of the world’s largest and most diversified global investment firms with $230billion of assets under management. Carlyle will leverage its global network, expertise and resources to support Jagex as it continues to drive growth by evolving the core RuneScape franchise through investment in R&D and increased content release rates, as well as launching new titles to diversify its portfolio and engage with an even wider community of players. Equity for the investment was provided by Carlyle Partners (CP) VII and Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (CETP) IV funds.
Phil Mansell, CEO of Jagex, said: “I am so proud that Jagex is teaming up with Carlyle, a prestigious investment group that believes in the potential of Jagex, our vision for growth, and will support us in accelerating our multi-year growth strategy. We will continue to expand our game teams to create and deliver more great content for RuneScape and Old School RuneScape. We will continue to create exciting experiences for our players, grow our global communities, build new games to expand and further explore the RuneScape universe, lend our expertise to publish third-party games from like-minded online game developers, and invest in the incredible tech and talent that powers this all.”
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Patrick McCarter, Managing Director at Carlyle, added: “The global video games market is large and growing, and within this the global massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) sub-sector is particularly attractive. We have been impressed with Jagex’s market position, strong track record of revenue and market share growth, as well as the experience and passion of the team.”
Michael Wand, Managing Director at Carlyle, said: “RuneScape is one of the most enduring RPG franchises and has a fantastic and committed player base. We look forward to drawing on the full resources of Carlyle to support Phil and his team to continue to grow the existing RuneScape franchise as well as launching new, exciting ones. We believe with further investment and innovation, Jagex can build on its position as one of the most exciting video game developers for both existing and new generations of MMORPG players.”
Notes to Editors:
2020 represented a marquee year for Jagex:
RuneScape and Old School RuneScape achieved peak popularity and a new all-time high of online subscribers with more than 1.2million members joining the further millions of players who enjoy RuneScape for free
Jagex continued to invest in the creation of new content for the RuneScape franchise, commenced early-stage production of new games, and hired top-tier game development and publishing talent. This created more than 70 new job openings that grew headcount c.20% year-on-year
2021 marks the 20th anniversary of RuneScape live game operations:
Epic 20th anniversary-themed content added to both games
RuneScape will also launch on mobile devices for both iOS and Android, and deliver cross-play functionality between the PC and mobile platforms
Jagex will continue building out its game production teams for the development of new online games, in addition to expanding its publishing services for live games created by partner game studios under its third-party publishing division, Jagex Partners
The first Jagex Partners title will be published later this year
About Jagex
A leader in creating deep and engaging live games on PC and mobile, Jagex’s flagship MMORPG, RuneScape, has welcomed almost 300million player accounts to its world and is a $1billion lifetime revenue franchise. Today the RuneScape franchise exists beyond running games in live operations; our titles are living games that connect and inspire millions of players, with content and experiences both inside and outside of inexhaustible game worlds. Both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, on PC and mobile, offer ever-evolving, highly active worlds and our community-focussed development ethos empowers players to have a real say in how each game is shaped. Now we’re expanding and extending our portfolio with fresh franchise titles and new IP to bring life to the living games of the future. Jagex employs more than 450 people at its Cambridge headquarters. Career information can be found at www.jagex.com/careers
About The Carlyle Group:
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit and Investment Solutions. With $230billion of assets under management as of September 30, 2020, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,800 people in 30 offices across six continents. Further information is available at www.carlyle.com. Follow The Carlyle Group on Twitter @OneCarlyle.
1 Total revenue since inception
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210125005590/en/
Contacts
The Carlyle Group:
EMEA: Andrew Kenny / +44 7816 176120 / andrew.kenny@carlyle.com
USA: Brittany Berliner / +1 212 813-4839 / brittany.berliner@carlyle.com
Jagex
Rich Eddy: rich.eddy@jagex.com
Jon Goddard: jon.goddard@jagex.com