(Representative image)
NEW DELHI: social media giant Twitter On Saturday he said that cyber attackers attacked some of his employees through a social engineering scheme and used their credentials to access their internal systems to hack multiple accounts in the Bitcoin scam.
“We believe that the attackers attacked certain Twitter employees through a social engineering scheme. They manipulated a small number of employees and used their credentials to access Twitter’s internal systems, including to overcome our two-factor protections.” Twitter said in a statement.
Unidentified hackers attacked Twitter accounts of more than 130 high-profile tech tycoons, politicians, celebrities, and big business on July 16.
The company also said that hackers were able to download account information for up to 8 accounts involved in hacking their systems this week and were able to reset passwords and take control of 45 of them and also tweet from those accounts. However, he said that none of them were verified accounts.
Cybercriminals sent fake tweets from people like Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Mike Bloomberg, and billionaires and tech companies, including Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk, Apple and Uber, offering to send $ 2,000 for every $ 1,000 sent to a bitcoin.
According to cyber security companies, at least 367 users transferred around $ 1,20,000 (more than Rs 90 lakh) to hackers within two hours of the attack.
Twitter further noted that it was withholding some of the details of the attack while continuing its investigation, and reiterated that it was working with the owners of the affected accounts.
(With contributions from the agency)
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