US teen who hacked high-profile people's Twitter pages charged

US teen who hacked high-profile people's Twitter pages charged

By Iva Danford
Saturday 01/08/2020

A 17-year-old boy from Florida allegedly hacked the Twitter accounts of prominent politicians, celebrities and technology moguls to scam people around globe out of more than $100,000 in Bitcoin.

He faces 30 felony charges.

The hacks led to bogus tweets being sent out July 15 from the accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Celebrities Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, were also hacked.

Twitter previously highlighted that hackers used the phone to fool the social media company's employees into giving them access and a small number of employees through a phone spear-phishing attack."

Spear-phishing is a more targeted version of phishing, an impersonation scam that uses email or other electronic communications to deceive recipients into handing over sensitive information.

The company tweeted "This attack relied on a significant and concerted attempt to mislead certain employees and exploit human vulnerabilities to gain access to our internal systems"

After stealing employee credentials and getting into Twitter's systems, the hackers were able to target other employees who had access to account support tools.

The hackers targeted 130 accounts.

They managed to tweet from 45 accounts, access the direct message inboxes of 36, and download the Twitter data from seven.

Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders has said his inbox was among those accessed.

Twitter said it would provide a more detailed report later given the ongoing law enforcement investigation.

The company has previously said the incident was a "coordinated social engineering attack" that targeted some of its employees with access to internal systems and tools. It didn't provide any more information about how the attack was carried out, but the details released so far suggest the hackers started by using the old-fashioned method of talking their way past security.

[Source: NZ Herald]

FEATURE NEWS
Secretary of the President was summoned and picked up to answer questions on why Malimali was not suspended
There are revelations that the Secretary to the President’s Office was picked up in a vehicle and summoned to appear before the Commission of Inquir...
14 hours ago
LATEST NEWS
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season – Archbishop Peter Loy Chong
Christians not only around the country but around the world are celebrating Ash Wednesday today which marks the beginning of the Lenten ...
55 minutes ago

Fiji’s health indicators stagnant or lower than low middle-income countries – World Bank report
While Fiji has graduated from a low middle income country to a high middle-income country, our health status indicators has remained stagnant and has ...
1 hour ago

What are you trying to change in the 2013 Constitution: Ketan Lal asks Govt
Opposition member Ketan Lal is questioning the Government on what exactly are they trying to change in the 2013 Constitution or are they simply ...
15 hours ago

Drivers will lose their livelihood and license if they test positive for drugs - Tuisawau
People will lose their livelihood and their licenses if they test positive for drugs when applying for Public Service Vehicle license or applying for ...
15 hours ago

$99M paid out to BSP Life customers
$99 million has been paid by the BSP Life as customer benefits which was processed over 123,000 transactions throughout 2024, which is the highest ...
17 hours ago



fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan
Latest Videos

Stay tuned for the latest news on our radio stations

CFL radio frequencies
yb
IN DEPTH
Reverend Tugi on fijivillage Straight Talk With Vijay Narayan
Watch the General Secretary of Fiji Evangelical Fellowship, Reverend Simione Tugi on fijivillage Straight Talk With Vijay ...
6 days ago

fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan and William Parkinson
Chairman of Communications Fiji Limited, parent company of FM96, LegendFM, VitiFM, Navtarang, Radio Sargam, fijivillage and PNGFM, William Parkinson ...
7 days ago

fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan and Adi Tulia Nacola
The candid interview focuses on Nacola, coming from a chiefly family and being a daughter of a Minister who was ousted in the 1987 military coup, her ...
7 days ago

TOP