Several Twitter accounts of high-profile people and companies were hacked on Wednesday 15th July 2020, throwing Twitter in the unwanted spotlight.
This was a high-level coordinated attack aimed at scheming people through cryptocurrency who have already been battered financially by the coronavirus pandemic. According to Twitter, the attack was possible though “a coordinated social engineering hack, by cybercriminals who successfully targeted Twitter staff with access to the internal systems and tools”, an official statement from Twitter read.

The attack involved gaining access to the target high-profile victims, namely Barack Obama, Apple, Elon Musk and Joe Biden, Kim Kardashian West, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Wiz Khalifa, Warren Buffett, YouTuber MrBeast, Wendy’s, Uber, CashApp and Mike Bloomberg among many others.

On some accounts, the message was direct: double your money, “If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000. Only doing this for 30 minutes.” See the message below to understand the clarity of this tweet.

So far, the scheme has exploited people. It is a scheme which works.

The information available on the Internet indicate that “the main blockchain address used on the scam site had already collected more than 12.5 bitcoin — some $116,000 in USD — and it’s going up by the minute.”

Cybercrime incidents increase as economic times hit hard. You must stay alert all the time. Remember to observe basic cybersecurity hygiene. Check your account often, and in case of any suspicious activity, report it immediately. Also do set up two-factor authentication which is supported by many applications. Remember to add your mobile phone as a recovery option in case you forget your password.

Copyright Mustapha B Mugisa, 2020. All rights reserved