Twitter accounts of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and others apparently hacked

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/15/tech/twitter-hack-elon-musk-bill-
gates/index.html

San Francisco (CNN Business)Twitter (TWTR) accounts belonging to Joe 
Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Apple, among other prominent handles, 
were compromised on Wednesday and posted tweets that appeared to promote a 
cryptocurrency scam.

The accounts, along with those of former President Barack Obama, Kanye 
West, Kim Kardashian West, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Mike Bloomberg, 
posted similar tweets soliciting donations via Bitcoin to their verified 
profiles on Wednesday.

"Everyone is asking me to give back, and now is the time," Gates' tweet 
said, promising to double all payments to a Bitcoin address for the next 
30 minutes.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Twitter's support account said: "We are aware of 
a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating 
and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly."

A little more than an hour after the attack began, Twitter apparently 
moved to prevent holders of verified accounts from tweeting. A CNN test 
showed non-verified accounts could still tweet.

"You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and 
address this incident," Twitter's support account said.

The sheer number of prominent accounts impacted made it arguably the 
biggest security incident in Twitter's history. A hack like this is 
particularly concerning not just because of any financial scam that can be 
run, but because so many world leaders use Twitter -- and some, like 
President Donald Trump, use it to announce major policy decisions. A hack 
that took over an account belonging to one of those leaders could have 
devastating consequences.

Last year, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's account was hacked, raising concerns 
about whether any account on the platform can truly avoid being 
compromised. The mechanism by which that hack occurred was fixed by 
Twitter after Dorsey's hack and there's no reason to believe it is to 
blame here.

A campaign aide for Biden said Twitter "locked down" his account 
immediately. "We remain in touch with Twitter on the matter," the aide 
added.

"We can confirm that this tweet was not sent by Bill Gates," a 
spokesperson for Gates told CNN Business. "This appears to be part of a 
larger issue that Twitter is facing. Twitter is aware and working to 
restore the account."

Asked whether it was concerned about the President's account potentially 
being affected, or whether it was in touch with Twitter about the issue, 
the White House declined comment.

The first Bitcoin wallet featured in some of the tweets only became active 
on Wednesday, Tim Cotten, a Bitcoin researcher, told CNN Business. In the 
hours immediately after the wallet's identification number was posted to 
Twitter, it received more than $100,000 worth of Bitcoins through hundreds 
of transactions, Cotten said.

Some of that Bitcoin was then transferred to other wallets, he added.

The apparent scam has also caught the attention of the FBI.

"We are aware of today's security incident involving several Twitter 
accounts belonging to high profile individuals," the FBI's San Francisco 
field office said in a statement. "The accounts appear to have been 
compromised in order to perpetuate cryptocurrency fraud. We advise the 
public not to fall victim to this scam by sending cryptocurrency or money 
in relation to this incident."


-- 
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.

Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in 
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016.  The clown car 
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump 
truck.

Congratulations President Trump.  Thank you for cleaning up the disaster 
of the Obama presidency.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump has boosted the economy, reduced illegal immigration, 
appointed dozens of judges and created jobs.

Senile loser and NAMBLA supporter Nancy Pelosi got "Trumped" on February 
5, 2020.  "President Trump, Not Guilty."