On July 15th, multiple verified Twitter accounts associated with public figures and companies were hijacked and tweeted out a bitcoin scam. Several accounts impacted by the breach include Apple, President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, rapper Kanye West, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Uber.
The takeovers lasted more than two hours, and Twitter took extreme measures to prevent other verified accounts from being compromised, such as disabling the ability for some users to send new tweets and locking some users out of their accounts.
Twitter is continuing to look into the incident, and the FBI has launched its own investigation, so there’s sure to be more news about the unprecedented attack on the social media platform. Follow along with all of the latest updates in our StoryStream below.
Sep 3, 2020, 9:10 PM UTCSean Hollister
You can now download your Twitter data again and see what hackers could’ve nabbed
Twitter had shut off ‘Your Twitter Data’ as a precaution
Sep 2, 2020, 5:09 PM UTCNick Statt
Twitter hack conspirators may include a 16-year-old from Massachusetts
The teen joins 17-year-old Graham Clark, the supposed mastermind, as the two youngest conspirators
Aug 5, 2020, 6:42 PM UTCSean Hollister
Alleged Twitter teen hacker’s hearing got zoombombed big time
You ruined it for everyone
Aug 3, 2020, 10:50 AM UTCJon Porter
Go read this investigation into the troubled past of alleged Twitter hacker
From Minecraft scams to the biggest hack in Twitter’s history
Jul 31, 2020, 11:08 PM UTCSean Hollister
Three people have been charged for Twitter’s huge hack, and a Florida teen is in jail
Update: The Tampa teen allegedly pretended to work for Twitter’s IT department
Jul 31, 2020, 1:29 AM UTCJay Peters
Twitter says a spear phishing attack led to the huge bitcoin scam
‘This attack relied on a significant and concerted attempt to mislead certain employees’
Jul 27, 2020, 10:16 PM UTCJay Peters
Years before big hack, Twitter contractors reportedly spied on celebs, including Beyoncé
Some of those contractors were reportedly employed by Cognizant
Jul 23, 2020, 12:51 AM UTCJay Peters
Twitter says hackers accessed the DMs of one elected official in last week’s attack
Attackers may have accessed the DMs of up to 36 accounts, including a Netherlands-based official
Jul 20, 2020, 6:08 PM UTCMakena Kelly
Coinbase says it halted more than $280,000 in bitcoin transactions during Twitter hack
The company blacklisted the bitcoin address
Jul 18, 2020, 4:38 AM UTCSean Hollister
Read Twitter’s update on the huge hack — 8 accounts may have had private messages stolen
But it sounds like the attackers didn’t get Biden’s data cache
Jul 18, 2020, 12:28 AM UTCNick Statt
Go read The New York Times’ incredible account of how the Twitter attack may have happened
We’re starting to get an idea of how the legendary hack went down
Jul 17, 2020, 10:00 AM UTCCasey Newton
Everything we know about this week’s big Twitter hack so far
Who might have done it, and how, and what else they might have planned. Plus: Q&A with Facebook’s chief diversity officer
Jul 17, 2020, 12:35 AM UTCJay Peters
Trump’s Twitter account has extra protections, which could be why it didn’t get hacked
A lot of high-profile accounts were hit yesterday, but not Trump’s
Jul 16, 2020, 11:41 PM UTCNick Statt
Twitter’s massive attack: What we know after Apple, Biden, Obama, Musk, and others tweeted a bitcoin scam
Update: Wednesday’s Twitter attack is now being investigated by numerous law enforcement agencies
Jul 16, 2020, 10:31 PM UTCNick Statt
The FBI opens investigation into Twitter attack over national security concerns
Numerous investigations are now probing Twitter’s worst-ever security incident
Jul 16, 2020, 8:48 PM UTCJay Peters
Twitter says passwords were spared in yesterday’s attack, but it’s still working to restore locked accounts
Twitter wants to restore access “ASAP”
Jul 16, 2020, 5:01 PM UTCMakena Kelly
Lawmakers demand more details on Twitter’s massive hack
Twitter is investigating the hack
Jul 16, 2020, 3:42 AM UTCNick Statt
Twitter reveals that its own employee tools contributed to unprecedented hack
Twitter says hackers compromised high-profile accounts thanks to access to internal tools
Jul 16, 2020, 12:27 AM UTCCasey Newton
The massive Twitter hack could be a global security crisis
Bitcoin scammers won’t be the last people to take over verified accounts — and we should be very, very worried about who else will
Jul 15, 2020, 10:26 PM UTCChaim Gartenberg
Twitter shut off the ability for many people to tweet after massive hack
Update: “Most accounts should be able to Tweet again”