WAS THE RECENT TWITTER HACK OF HIGH-PROFILE ACCOUNTS AN INSIDE JOB?

 “IT’S WHAT’S HAPPENING.”

 

The recent well-coordinated attack on Twitter accounts of high-profile accounts from different fields like politics, business, and entertainment has left the world shocked. It has also sparked a debate on how safe we are in the online world. Now, it is being speculated whether the well-coordinated Twitter hack was an inside job.

 

The Twitter hack saga started on Wednesday afternoon on the West Coast as the Twitter account of Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, that has about 37 million followers, was attacked.

 

The co-founder of Gemini, Cameron Winklevoss, tried to warn people by telling them it was a scam, “This is a SCAM, DO NOT participate!” He paid the price for it as Gemini’s account was hacked on the same day.

 

Bill Gates’ account was also hacked, and Bridgitt Arnold, the spokesperson for the Microsoft founder, confirmed the Twitter hack. The accounts of Uber and Apple were also targeted. Uber confirmed the Twitter hack via a tweet only (irony?). “Like many others, our @Uber account was hit by a scammer today. The tweet has been deleted and we’re working directly with @Twitter to figure out what happened,” the Uber’s communication team tweeted.

 

Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos and Joe Biden, the Democratic Presidential candidate who will be giving a stiff competition to the current President Donald Trump in the next election were also targeted. Biden’s campaign also confirmed the same. Another person who intended to run for the US presidential race this year and famous rapper is Kanye West. His account was also hacked.

 

The representatives of Bezos, Musk, and Apple didn’t respond to the requests for comment.

 

The initial stages of this well-coordinated high-profile account Twitter hack investigation have revealed that an internal tool was used for hacking purposes. Twitter Support account stated, “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. 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.” It implies that employees of the company were victims.

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.

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 16, 2020

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 Support (@TwitterSupport) July 16, 2020

 

However, a report from a media outlet that has been in touch with the hackers has stated that the insider who helped with the Twitter hack was willingly involved. If that’s the case, things will be quite complicated for Twitter in the future.