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An investigation by the New York State Department of Financial Services has revealed how the great Twitter hack in July happened. A total of 130 high-profile, celebrity accounts were compromised and many were used to tweet about a bitcoin giveaway scam.<\/strong><\/p>\n The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) released its Twitter investigation report last week. It explains how the massive Twitter hack<\/a> on July 15 happened, resulting in many high-profile accounts being accessed and used to tweet about a bitcoin giveaway scam.<\/p>\n A NYSE-listed technology company with a market cap of $40 billion, Twitter has more than 330 million total monthly active users and over 186 million daily active users, including over 36 million (20%) in the U.S., the NYDFS detailed.<\/p>\n The hack began on July 14 when one or more hackers called several Twitter employees, claiming to be calling from the IT department\u2019s help desk about Twitter\u2019s VPN, which a number of employees reported having problems with. \u201cEmployees had frequent problems with the VPN connections to the network,\u201d the report details.<\/p>\n Twitter\u2019s VPN problem ballooned when the company shifted to remote working in March due to the Covid-19 outbreak, which put a strain on the company\u2019s technology infrastructure, resulting in frequent VPN problems. \u201cThe hackers took advantage of these issues and pretended to be calling from Twitter\u2019s IT department about a VPN problem,\u201d the NYDFS stated, elaborating:<\/p>\n The hackers\u2019 claims were far more credible \u2013 and ultimately successful \u2013 because Twitter\u2019s employees were all using VPN connections to work and routinely experiencing VPN problems that required IT\u2019s assistance.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The hackers directed the employees to a phishing website that looked identical to the legitimate Twitter VPN website and was hosted by a similarly named domain. \u201cAs the employee entered their credentials into the phishing website, the hackers would simultaneously enter the information into the real Twitter website. This false log-in generated an MFA notification requesting that the employees authenticate themselves, which some of the employees did,\u201d the NYDFS explained. \u201cWhile some employees reported the calls to Twitter\u2019s internal fraud monitoring team, at least one employee believed the hackers\u2019 lies.\u201d<\/p>\n The report details that Twitter maintains \u201cinternal account management tools\u201d to manage a range of user account issues, which the hackers gained access to. A number of authorized Twitter employees have a username and password to access these internal account management tools. According to the report:<\/p>\n Overall, 130 Twitter user accounts were compromised during the Twitter hack. Of those, 45 accounts were used to send tweets. Twitter believes that for up to 36 of the 130 targeted accounts, the hackers also accessed DM inboxes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n During its investigation, the NYDFS conducted a survey and learned that 15 cryptocurrency companies blocked transfers to the hackers\u2019 addresses posted on Twitter, and seven did not. Four crypto companies actively blocked their users\u2019 attempts to send BTC<\/a> to the hackers\u2019 bitcoin addresses. In particular, the NYDFS found:<\/p>\n Coinbase blocked approximately 5,670 transfers, valued at approximately $1,294,000. Square blocked 358 transfers, valued at approximately $51,000. Gemini blocked two transfers, valued at approximately $1,800. Bitstamp blocked one transfer, valued at approximately $250.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n What do you think about this Twitter hack? Let us know in the comments section below.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The post How Hackers Exploited Twitter\u2019s VPN Problems, Obtained God Mode and Took Over Accounts<\/a> appeared first on Bitcoin News<\/a>.<\/p>\nHow Twitter Was Hacked<\/h2>\n
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