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Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

coindesk.com

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Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#621

Post by drra »

csomar wrote: post #452
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #260

Given how huge this hack is, and how little the BTC reward is going to be, I'm tempting to think this is either: - a test of a new hacking system - a demonstration to a big client - a first shot to threat some entity - a diversion while they get the real loot And that the BTC messages are just a way to justify it so it looks like a simple scam. Such a hack is worth way, WAY more than the few BTC it could bring.

Maybe the dude shorted the Twitter stock?

There is a spike of the short volume on 8th - https://fintel.io/ss/us/twtr

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#622

Post by benlumen »

cwkoss wrote: post #595
durpkingOP wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was done was a guaranteed method of getting the method/exploit fixed in record time. If the perpetrator wanted to demonstrate, they would have targeted someone inconsequential that would not have put the problem on twitters radar. They blew their whole wad, likely on purpose, and there is nothing else planned.

Yeah, the idea that this is an initial step in something bigger doesn't make sense. If they wanted to exfiltrate data, they already did that previously. They very loudly burned their access, this seems a lot more like someone trying to monetize their access quickly before their access token expires - squeezing out the last few drops before they can no longer get into the system.

Very loudly indeed. Think message sent or stocks shorted.

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#623

Post by stjo »

veridies wrote: post #606
bouncycastle wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. They're actually getting away with quite a big loot! The number of unconfirmed transactions has catapulted from ~9k to about ~50k right now, which means there's large amount of activity. It will take a while for the dust to settle. You can watch them here https://www.blockchain.com/btc/unconfirmed-transactions chart https://www.blockchain.com/charts/mempool-count A better graph of the current transactions sitti…

Question (I'm not an expert): can unconfirmed transactions be withdrawn? If so, what's the timeline?

There are 2 stages in sending bitcoin:

1) You submit transaction to the mempool. It may take a couple of minutes for a miner that "liked" your transaction to include it in a block. While in this stage, the receiver technically does not have anything yet, thus impossible to use them in any way.

2) The transaction get put inside a block. Generally, most vendors would say the transaction is "unconfirmed", although technically it is now in the ledger. There is a small chance that due to inconsistencies and network latency the block gets orphaned and the replacing block does not include the transaction. If you are a vendor and start shipping products immediately after your money is put into the ledger, you open yourself to a range of possible attacks. For this reason most wait two or three more blocks, just to be sure.

To answer your question: After a block gets created and the scammer receives his crypto, albeit still in an unconfirmed (read as "young") block, they can start using it however they decide to. Small chance that their actions get reverted exists tho.

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#624

Post by notatoad »

kshacker wrote: post #605
glenstein wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>a demonstration to a big client Okay, this has me curious. Could someone describe the context/circumstance where you have a 'big client' to whom you illustrate capabilities by this kind of hack? This is a black market thing, right? I don't doubt it, I'm just curious what this market is, and what it means to be a 'big client' in it, etc.

I will bite. Without taking a political stance. Imagine you could show GRU that they can make Trump tweet "I just ordered a nuclear strike on..." What value would you place on this? The proof will go along with another method of hacking the account that is not disclosed.

After having alerted twitter to the hack and given them time to fix it? I'd say that's worth approximately $0

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#625

Post by eternalban »

tehwebguy wrote: post #453
qrbLPHiKpiux wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Us politicians using twitter to communicate en masse is irresponsible in of itself. So unprofessional

Yes, they should make the constituents come to them! What?

It's called a website. Office holder communicates via his office's offical website. Constituents have email addresses he can email. S/he can setup a slack/zoom/irc channel and have a constituent "town hall".

Tweeting is actually effectively reducing the available bandwidth of communication, and quality of content.

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#626

Post by bouncycastle »

veridies wrote: post #606
bouncycastle wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. They're actually getting away with quite a big loot! The number of unconfirmed transactions has catapulted from ~9k to about ~50k right now, which means there's large amount of activity. It will take a while for the dust to settle. You can watch them here https://www.blockchain.com/btc/unconfirmed-transactions chart https://www.blockchain.com/charts/mempool-count A better graph of the current transactions sitti…

Question (I'm not an expert): can unconfirmed transactions be withdrawn? If so, what's the timeline?

Yes. Some wallets allow you to use "Replace by Fee" protocol, which allows you to do that.

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#627

Post by abrodersen »

veridies wrote: post #606
bouncycastle wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. They're actually getting away with quite a big loot! The number of unconfirmed transactions has catapulted from ~9k to about ~50k right now, which means there's large amount of activity. It will take a while for the dust to settle. You can watch them here https://www.blockchain.com/btc/unconfirmed-transactions chart https://www.blockchain.com/charts/mempool-count A better graph of the current transactions sitti…

Question (I'm not an expert): can unconfirmed transactions be withdrawn? If so, what's the timeline?

You could issue a double spend transaction that goes to another wallet you control with a higher fee and the network will probably apply that one first.

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#628

Post by adventured »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #260

Given how huge this hack is, and how little the BTC reward is going to be, I'm tempting to think this is either: - a test of a new hacking system - a demonstration to a big client - a first shot to threat some entity - a diversion while they get the real loot And that the BTC messages are just a way to justify it so it looks like a simple scam. Such a hack is worth way, WAY more than the few BTC it could bring.

> - a diversion while they get the real loot

It's that one. They were after the DMs of one target, and needed cover for who they were specifically after, so they hit many accounts.

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#629

Post by parsimo2010 »

xvector wrote: post #586
jgbond wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m guessing DMs were the real loot. The public display with the BTC diversion validates any DMs that were stolen. Otherwise blackmail targets could deny them.

These are publicly managed Twitter accounts, they probably don't have any DMs of substance.

I'll bet that Bill Gates doesn't have much on his Twitter, but I'll also bet Elon Musk has some crazy DMs.

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#630

Post by xxr »

PatrolX wrote: post #244

Twitter is seriously out of control. They should have pulled the plug an hour ago, and that plug pulling should have been automated. If this were something even more sinister a whole country could have plummeted into chaos, death, destruction.

Imagine something of this magnitude combined with well-voiced (or silent and subtitled) high-effort deepfakes.
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