2020 Twitter Hack
2020 Twitter Hack
CryptoForHealth Twitter Hack is a large scale security breach that took place on Twitter on July 15, 2020. The hacked accounts were used to post malicious links and requests to send Bitcoin in exchange for more bitcoin.[2] Many high profile accounts were compromised, including Ripple, CoinDesk, Coinbase, Binance, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Apple.[1] As of the evening of July 15, The digital wallet has received over 12 bitcoin.[14] [18]
Background
On July 15, 2020, CryptoForHealth Twitter Hack took place shortly after 4 PM EST, when various high profile accounts began to post similar tweets.[4] Many of the tweets posted across the accounts similarly stated,
Everyone is asking me to give back, and now is the time.
I am doubling all payments sent to my BTC address for the next 30 minutes.
You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000.
BTC Address - bc1qxy2kgdygjrsqtzq2n0yrf2493p83kkfjhx0wlh.
Only going on for 30 minutes!
Enjoy![6]
Another variation of the scam, which appeared to focus more on popular accounts within the cryptocurrency space, posted similar tweets that read,
We have partnered with CryptoForHealth and are giving back 5000 btc to the community.
See more here : cryptoforhealth.com[7]
Twitter took wind of the immense breach shortly after, stating
We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter.
We are investigating and taking steps to fix it.
We will update everyone shortly.[5]
Aftermath
Following the spike in accounts being compromised, Twitter quickly took action and barred all verified accounts from being able to post any tweets.[20] Later that same day of the attack, Twitter Support posted a statement,
We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools.[19]
The hackers were also caught using BitPay and Coinbase to commit the wallet transactions. These wallets have previously actively used the address, according to Whitestream, a blockchain analytics company, and have received over 14.75 bitcoin, worth around $135,000.
The attack has raised some serious security concerns among policymakers, as security compromises of this scale could potentially cause irreversible consequences.
Additionally, according to David Vladeck and Jessica Rich, former directors of the Federal Trade Commission's consumer protection bureau, the FTC is likely to investigate the situation, and introduce fines and 'other penalties.'
Accounts Compromised
People
Mr Beast
Benjamin Netanyahu
Jason Elia
Barack Obama
Companies
The CryptoForHealth.com Domain
The cryptoforhealth.com domain used in the attack was registered on the same day as the hack, according to ICANN. Kristaps Ronka, chief executive of Namesilo, the domain registrar used by the scammers, told TechCrunch that the company suspended the domain “on the first report” it received. Hacked accounts shifted to sharing multiple bitcoin wallet addresses as the incident went on, making things more difficult to track.
The domain registration information for the website was found to be publicly available, with CryptoForHealth.com purportedly having been registered by ‘Anthony Elias’ of California using the email address mkeyworth5@gmail.com .
However, the street address provided does not exist according to Google Maps, while the phone number does not connect.
Whois has since removed the information, labeling it as having been “redacted for privacy.”