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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

#901

Post by enchiridion »

abvdasker wrote: post #880
kabacha wrote: post #872

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you underestimate the value of this hack — it's really safe. BTC is transparent but pretty safe and easy to launder compared to messing with stocks which would draw so much heat that it's very likely you'd get caught.

If their goal was to get BTC, why would they copy/paste the exact same message with the same Bitcoin address for every compromised account? Nobody who could pull this off would be that dumb.

Is it really that much harder to track 1 address vs 10k? It seems like it would be additional work for no marginal benefit.

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#902

Post by samanator »

praveen9920 wrote: post #855
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.

Or it could be attack on Twitter itself. Jack's policies are not loved by few folks in WH. Just speculating OR Twitter's stock was down by some major percentage because of this incident. It could be a way to earn bigger and "legal" money by having prior knowledge about this incident.

Wow that's brilliant. I didn't think of that. If someone had a non trivial amount in stock shorts, they could stand to make an exorbitant amount of money.

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#903

Post by otabdeveloper4 »

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.

There's a simpler explanation: someone wants to destroy Twitter. (Bless them, lol.)

Twitter's only value to the world is the idea that it is a platform where "celebs" can safely broadcast their message to the public. That value proposition has now been destroyed.

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#904

Post by etxm »

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

Twitter as a riderless horse would be wild.

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#906

Post by alvis »

It's a very very loud attack, no doubt. But how sophisticated it's? Probably not as much as many think. As early reports suggest the attack was done via a stolen employee's token, it suggests the attacker has access to the employee's web browser. Potentially some malware extension that silently sniffs traffic to twitter?

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#907

Post by monokh »

shdc wrote: post #636
monokh wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about the possibility of a Bitcoin marketing campaign?

Hmm the thing is, associating it even more with "hack" and "scam" isn't really great marketing.

I tell you what: it has been working pretty well so far. Just about every year, this is exactly how Bitcoin is portrayed.

- Bitcoin is used for scams

- Bitcoin hacks

- Bitcoin used for illegal activity

All the meanwhile, more people become aware and interested.

These sort of events prime the "nocoiners" to read and understand that little bit more.

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#908

Post by the_gipsy »

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #903
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.

There's a simpler explanation: someone wants to destroy Twitter. (Bless them, lol.) Twitter's only value to the world is the idea that it is a platform where "celebs" can safely broadcast their message to the public. That value proposition has now been destroyed.

"destroyed", a bit exaggerated, mate.

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#909

Post by burfog »

Nextgrid wrote: post #583
londons_explore wrote: post #558

Notable that Trump is not impacted. If you had backdoor access to any Twitter account, why on earth wouldn't you tweet as Trump?

I have heard that Trump's account has extra protections around it that presumably prevent even staff from accessing it, in which case if this was a staff account compromise it would make sense that they can't touch Trump's account. Another possibility is that they are indeed just after the money and compromising Trump's account would prompt a faster response from Twitter (possibly taking down the entire account or pl…

Trump's account might have been the final one targeted, locking the attacker out from messing with any additional accounts. If a Twitter employee is messing with famous accounts in an unauthorized way, automatically stopping the employee would be reasonable.

I've heard of this feature existing with the software used by phone companies and hospitals. Employees who poke around looking at famous people soon get locked out of the system.

Re: Hackers take over prominent Twitter accounts in simultaneous attack

#910

Post by imcoconut »

amrrs wrote: post #122
maxcan wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, we should be relieved if thats all that was stolen. A more sophisticated attack would involve OTM puts on TSLA and a tweet along the lines of: "finding major defects in Ys and 3s. shutting down all lines to reconfigure for a week" That could have netted the attackers millions.

"Hacking Elon’s Twitter account and using it for a crypto scam rather than a stock-trading scam shows a complete lack of imagination" - Naval https://twitter.com/naval/status/1283507218294292481?s=19

Assuming the ultimate purpose for the hack is a crypto scam shows a complete lack of imagination.
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