Twitter Hackers Gained Access to Accounts Using Internal Tool

Several verified high profile Twitter accounts were hacked on Wednesday in a cryptocurrency scam that targeted accounts belonging to Apple, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, and more.

apple bitcoin hack
Twitter has said it doesn't believe any passwords were stolen in the hack, which forced the company to temporarily lock all verified accounts on the platform. While the company continues to investigate the attack, a new report suggests at least one Twitter employee and possibly more were involved in the takeover.

Motherboard was able to speak to two of the alleged hackers, who claim they paid a Twitter employee to gain access to the compromised accounts using an internal tool. This tool apparently allows staff to change the email address associated with accounts, and it was this ability that allowed the security breach to take place.

Twitter on Thursday said that a "coordinated social engineering attack" had targeted some of its staff as part of the hack.


Hackers posted tweets on the compromised accounts saying that if followers sent Bitcoin to a wallet address then they would receive double the amount in return. Many users clearly fell for the scam, which earned the hackers over $100,000 in the space of two hours.

Twitter believes approximately 130 accounts were targeted by the attackers in some way as part of the incident, but the company has not yet been able to confirm whether DMs were compromised. The FBI is also investigating how the breach was allowed to happen.

Tag: Twitter

Top Rated Comments

Mactendo Avatar
42 months ago

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.
What a way to say “some of our employees were involved in the hack”.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Unggoy Murderer Avatar
42 months ago
Putting all the blue ticks in Twitter jail for a half a day was pretty refreshing if I'm honest...
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rmariboe Avatar
42 months ago
I kinda feel if anyone's stupid and greedy enough to fall for something like this, that's a lesson well (l)earned.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
imom Avatar
42 months ago

$100,000 which regular folks thought was gonna go to a good cause. **** that employee.
Which good cause? It was just greed, gullibility and self-interest which made those 100 'donors' send their bitcoins.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
swm Avatar
42 months ago

anyone's stupid and greedy enough to fall for something like this
human stupidity >> size of the universe
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Anarchy99 Avatar
42 months ago
the sad thing about this scam is we know its either perpetrated by idiots who wanted money in a wallet thats basically useless because the BTC ledger is public so we can have idea when the money is spent and investigate where/what on. (not likely)

not to mention a few years ago, a single fake tweet "from the AP" cost billions in losses and the hack lasted like 3 minutes.

this hack lasted 2-3hours where the hackers/rogue employee had full account access to every blue check including DM's
there are easier ways to make money with that kind of info/access if that was the goal
which makes the Bitcoin scam look like a smokescreen or the US being put on notice by an adversary

which funny enough is the most comforting, we could already assume an enemy Gov't has the hacking resources as well as the means to bribe/coerce an employee.
but if it was truly just idiots out for money it shows what power idiots can access at twitter.

eitherway shows the security problems
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iphone se 4 modified flag edges

iPhone SE 4 Details: Action Button, USB-C Port, Face ID, and More

Wednesday September 27, 2023 1:34 pm PDT by
Significant changes are expected to arrive with Apple's fourth-generation iPhone SE, in terms of both design and hardware, MacRumors has learned. The iPhone SE 4, known internally under the codename Ghost, is expected to receive a new design derived almost entirely from the base model iPhone 14. According to our sources, the iPhone SE 4 will use a modified version of the iPhone 14 chassis...
iOS 17

Apple Releases iOS 17.0.2 and iPadOS 17.0.2 for All iPhones and iPads

Tuesday September 26, 2023 12:47 pm PDT by
Apple today released iOS 17.0.2 and iPadOS 17.0.2 updates, with the software coming five days after the releases of iOS 17.0.1 and iPadOS 17.0.1. Today's iOS 17.0.2 and iPadOS 17.0.2 updates arrive as build 21A351 and can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Note that iOS 17.0.2 was previously made available for iPhone...
iPhone 15 Pro Lineup Feature

Kuo: iPhone 15 Pro Overheating Issues Likely Due to Thermal Compromises, Not 3nm Node

Tuesday September 26, 2023 9:12 am PDT by
Complaints about heat issues with the iPhone 15 Pro models are not related to TSMC's 3-nanometer node that was used for the A17 Pro chip, according to well-respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Kuo says that overheating could be caused by "compromises made in the thermal system design" that allowed Apple to cut down on the weight of the iPhone 15 Pro models. Kuo says that the reduced heat...
iOS 17

Everything New in iOS 17.1 Beta 1

Wednesday September 27, 2023 1:57 pm PDT by
Just a week after releasing iOS 17, Apple has seeded the first beta of iOS 17.1 to developers. iOS 17.1 adds some features that Apple promised were coming to iOS 17 in the future, plus it refines and improves some existing features. This guide covers everything new in the first iOS 17.1 beta. Apple Music Favorites You can favorite songs, albums, playlists, and artists in the iOS 17.1...
macos sonoma 4

Apple Releases macOS Sonoma With New Widget Features, Safari Updates, Screen Sharing Improvements and More

Tuesday September 26, 2023 10:01 am PDT by
Apple today released macOS 14 Sonoma, the newest version of the operating system that runs on the Mac. macOS Sonoma has been in beta testing for several months, and it is compatible with the 2019 and later iMac, the iMac Pro, the 2018 and later Mac mini, the 2018 and later MacBook Pro, the 2019 and later Mac Pro, and the Mac Studio. The ‌macOS Sonoma update can be downloaded for free on...