Target confirms its Twitter was hacked to promote a Bitcoin scam

Target has officially confirmed its Twitter account got hacked to promote a malicious cryptocurrency giveaway scam, promising over $31 million worth of Bitcoin to naive investors.

“Early this morning, Target’s Twitter account was inappropriately accessed” a company spokesperson told Hard Fork in an email. “The access lasted for approximately half an hour and one fake tweet was posted during that time about a Bitcoin scam.”

“We’re in close contact with Twitter, have deleted the tweet and have locked the account while we investigate further,” the retail giant further told Hard Fork. Unfortunately, the origin of the breach remains unclear.

For those out of the loop, the hackers briefly gained access to Target’s profile earlier this morning.

Taking advantage of its almost two-million following, the attackers tweeted links to a fake giveaway, encouraging users to send small amounts of cryptocurrency for a chance to win 5,000 BTC (over $31 million).

It is worth noting that the attackers had also taken over a heap of other high-profile accounts, perhaps in an effort to make the giveaway link posted from Target’s profile appear more legit.

It will be taken down at some point, so for the record: pic.twitter.com/is0av6MkY1

— Ernst Mulders (@ernstmul) November 13, 2018

Just last week, a number of online retail companies and Europe’s second largest film company, Pathé, fell victims to the same attack. More recently, hackers were able to hijack the accounts of US and Israeli politicians, as well as the Indian Consulate in Frankfurt, to dupe unsuspecting users out of their coins.

We’ve asked Target about the specifics of the breach and we will update this piece accordingly once we know more.