Twitter has given an update on the Twitter bitcoin scam of 15th July which allowed the hackers to tweet about Bitcoin from all high-profile accounts. To this bitcoin scam, Twitter now says that few of the employees were targeted in a phone spear-phishing attack.
Twitter Says Phone Spear-Phishing Attack on Employees Led to Breach
The US microblogging site says that the hackers targeted 130 accounts, and tweeted from 45 accounts. And now, twitter says, that the attackers also targeted few of the employees who had access to support tools. From the time this incident occurred, the access to the internal tools and systems is restricted. Earlier, Twitter said that its own tools were compromised in the attack.
Twitter posted a tweet and said,
“This attack relied on a significant and concerted attempt to mislead certain employees and exploit human vulnerabilities to gain access to our internal systems.”
The attack on July 15, 2020, targeted a small number of employees through a phone spear phishing attack. This attack relied on a significant and concerted attempt to mislead certain employees and exploit human vulnerabilities to gain access to our internal systems.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 31, 2020
After the bitcoin attack, Twitter limited the features and locked accounts for few users. However, most of the features have come back like accessing Your Twitter Data.
The company said it has “significantly limited” access to its internal tools for the moment and is “improving our methods for detecting and preventing inappropriate access to our internal systems.”
We’re accelerating several of our pre-existing security workstreams and improvements to our tools. We are also improving our methods for detecting and preventing inappropriate access to our internal systems and prioritizing security work across many of our teams.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 31, 2020
In the attack, the hackers tweeted about bitcoin from high profile accounts of Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and much more. The FBI investigation in the attack has been launched.