On July 15, 2020, some of the world’s richest and most influential politicians, celebrities, tech moguls and companies were the subject of a massive Twitter hack. The Twitter accounts of Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Barak Obama, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Kim Kardashian West and Bill Gates, as well as the corporate accounts of Apple and Uber, were hacked. The tweets were asking followers to send money to a Bitcoin address, which the celebrity would have matched with their own money. There have been at least 363 transactions since the tweets were posted, and that Bitcoin address accumulated over $118,000.
Shortly after the incident, many verified users reported they could no longer tweet, including media companies. Twitter acknowledged the issue.
It is still unknown how these accounts have been hacked.
This is the first time Twitter accounts have been hacked. In July 2018, cybercriminals impersonated the Twitter account of Elon Musk. In August 2020, Cybercriminals hacked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s account. And on Jan. 1, 2020, Mariah Carey’s Twitter account has been hacked.
Read more about it here.