Following a series of cryptocurrency-related hackings on high-profile accounts (including retail giant Target and some politicians), Twitter has finally addressed the Bitcoin giveaway scam epidemic on its platform.
In an email to Hard Fork, a spokesperson for Twitter confirmed – that in addition to Target’s profile – a number of accounts had been hacked to promote Bitcoin scams. The spokesperson added Twitter has been in touch with Target with regards to the incident (as also corroborated by the retailer).
“We’ve been in close contact with Target this morning and can also confirm that their account was inappropriately accessed for approximately half an hour, after which we swiftly locked the account so Twitter could thoroughly investigate the issue,” Twitter told Hard Fork.
The company further said its team had identified a bunch of other cryptocurrency-related breaches. The company is working closely with such companies to prevent this from happening in the future.
The spokesperson told Hard Fork the platform has implemented measures to counteract the spread of Bitcoin scams on its platform. For the best password protection practices, Twitter recommends consulting with its security page. The company also reiterates that accessing accounts without authorization (or with the use of illicit methods) is strictly against its rules.
Despite this reassurance from the company, it should be noted that months after banning accounts using the name ‘Elon Musk,’ hackers kept disguising their scams as the Tesla founder. Indeed, there was one such case this week.
In an effort to fight back against the army of scambots, Musk himself sought help from the creator of popular cryptocurrency Dogecoin – another clear sign that Twitter’s defense mechanism needs to improve.
Or we can expect many other major brands and government accounts to be promoting Bitcoin giveaway scams.
Update: Welp, moments after this piece went up, Google got breached too.
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