Systemwide Twitter Hack Occurring Now

Written by Aaron Wise
Wednesday, July 15, 2020 at 04:47pm CDT

There is a large hack of various Twitter accounts occurring currently. Small business owners of all kinds, including restaurateurs, should be wary of any claims being tweeted today. Owners should also take immediate action to safeguard their social accounts and linked applications.

Photoshopped versions of alleged tweets from President Donald Trump, including one written in Arabic, and tweets from assorted heads of state around the globe are circulating on social media.

According to a report from one hour ago, the hacking group is attempting to collect bitcoins and other forms of bounties and scams. At least one bitcoin wallet owned by the hacking group has collected over $25,000 from victims as of the time of publication.

It is highly inadvisable to click on any Twitter links today. Users should investigate and deactivate any linked applications or website processes with “write” permissions into or out of Twitter. 

Wladimir van der Laan, the successor of bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, has confirmed the hack today. “Something really fishy is going on, no idea if this is sufficient, but everything that has write permission to your twitter account is a potential risk.” He continued with strong advice, “Whatever you do, don’t click the link.”

Wladimir van der Laan is the second generation Lead Maintainer of bitcoin, which is a position equal in power to Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto was the Lead Maintainer of the Bitcoin repository on GitHub, but when he retired, he named Gavin Andresen as his successor. In April 2014, Gavin Andresen nominated Laan as his successor.

The accounts of several multi-billion dollar companies have been hacked, including @bitcoin, @ripple, @coindesk, @coinbase, and @binance. Elon Musk’s account was also hacked. The hack seems focused on the crypto community; but as van der Laan warns, it could be a systemwide Twitter attack. Again, it is worthwhile to check up on any applications linked to one’s Twitter account.

Photo by Morning Brew on Unsplash