Several major companies and high profile celebrities have been hit by bitcoin hackers. Kanye West, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Apple, Uber, and more were victims of an unprecedented “security incident” on Twitter yesterday, with scammers making off with over $100,000 in bitcoin.
The hack appears to have taken place when the accounts of several major cryptocurrency players were hacked within minutes of one another. Tweets were posted across the profiles of several billionaires, high-profile tech execs, companies, celebrities, and politicians. “I am giving back to the community,” a typical victim’s tweet reads. “All Bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled! If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000. Only doing this for 30 minutes.”
All messages appeared to lead to the same digital wallet, which recorded around 300 transactions following the hacks.
Twitter confirmed the breach earlier today and in an unprecedented move said it won’t restore access to the accounts' owners “until we are certain we can do so securely.”
While bitcoin scams like these are a classic, they usually involve fake accounts impersonating celebrities. However, hacking into so many high-profile accounts at once is unprecedented. Until, the issue is amended on Twitter's end, it seems like Kanye won't be tweeting.
