Update 07/31/2020 7:30pm:
Authorities have arrested a Tampa-area teen in connection with the Twitter hack that targeted high-profile accounts as part of a larger Bitcoin scam. Graham Clark, 17, is accused of being the "mastermind" behind the hack and is facing "one count of organized fraud, 17 counts of communications fraud, one count of fraudulent use of personal information with over $100,000 or 30 or more victims, 10 counts of fraudulent use of personal information and one count of access to computer or electronic device without authority."
According to Hillsborough County Jail records, Graham was booked shortly after 6:30 AM Friday. Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren said Graham's scheme “stole the identities of prominent people” in addition to “posted messages in their names directing victims to send Bitcoin” to accounts held by the teen. Authorities say the scam yielded $100,000 in Bitcoin in just one day.
Original 07/16/2020 9:54am:
A slew of celebrities were hacked on Twitter in a targeted bitcoin scam on Wednesday (July 15). The hackers targeted high-profile accounts, including those of Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Kanye West. Twitter share prices were down more than 5% in Thursday’s premarket following the incident.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk was the first person targeted, as his account promised to double any payments sent to a bitcoin address. Twitter responded to the situation, writing, "We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools. We know they used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf."
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also responded, writing, "Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened. We’re diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened. [Love] to our teammates working hard to make this right."
