Twitter lived yesterday what could be considered the greatest hacking The attack throughout its history, in which the beads of important companies and their founders.
The consequences of this hacking they are still dormant, while Twitter trying to clarify what happened. But … What really happened? And how did an attacker manage to take full control of the accounts of Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Apple, Uber and even Twitter Support?
What happened on Twitter?
Before trying to solve these questions, it is necessary to recapitulate what happened. On Wednesday June 15, 2020, the first reports that indicated the sequential publication of a suspicious message the different accounts of these users, with a minute of difference between each publication.
This text invited the followers of these people to make a transfer in Bitcoins, under the promise of returning their money in full with an added percentage, which in some cases doubled the amount transferred. When the message came from beads Official, and verified, many users believed in the message and proceeded to make the transfer.
We are giving back to our community. We support Bitcoin and we believe you should too! All bitcoins sent to our address will be returned twice!Message broadcast on hacked Twitter accounts
Shortly after the first messages, Twitter He sent a notice informing that they were already investigating what happened, however for some it was late, since according to the specialist in Informatic security Hiram Camarillo were made 353 raising a total amount of 12.86 bitcoins, about $ 118,000, in the first bill and in the second, which had 33 transactions, it obtained 0.55 bitcoins, which is approximately $ 5,067.
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How did the biggest attack in the history of twitter happen?
The greatest attack in history presents various questions, which is why El Heraldo de México contacted specialists in the area of Informatic security looking to solve them.
Yes, for now Twitter It has not issued an official statement, confirming what happened, these are the most famous theories on the network that pose possible scenarios of the cyber attack.
The specialist in cybersecurity Cesar Gaytan mentioned that the attack originally started on cryptocurrency accounts “like an attack targeting crypto space” that involved exchange houses and founders of said companies in which through a twitt His followers were invited to enter a link to win one of the 5,000 bitcoins, which “they were giving away”. Within a few minutes the platform on which they were carrying out said operation detected suspicious activity and “banneo” the bill, reason why the attackers decided to go to “plan B”, taking control of companies and public figures.
One of the theories, proposed by the cryptocurrency specialist @Aantonop, points out that the alleged scammers managed to hack a system for publishing twitts, some service that had an integration to a twitter API.
Another theory, published by the user @ImNotTheWolf, hints at a process of social engineering, in which they could have basically “hacked” stolen or purchased access on the DarkNet, to one of the employees of Twitter managing to take control of internal tools and administration panels.
The specialist of SeekurityHiram Camarillo also agrees with this theory, in which the attackers would have used an internal tool that allows to carry out any action on the beads, obtaining access thanks to an internal employee in Twitter.
For his part, César Gaytán, HackWise, considers that the attack could be due to a Zero Day, that is, a vulnerability that only the cybercriminal knows, because after the incident fraudsters continued to publish, forcing Twitter to pause the activity permanently.
As a precaution, both specialists suggest ignoring any publication, raffle, or gifts that happen with cryptocurrencies under a mechanism that asks you to make deposits.
“No matter who it comes from, no company will ask you to deposit to win a prize”
Until now Twitter he has not confirmed any of these theories.
By Mónica Hernández L. – Digital Writing El Heraldo de México
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