Both in the crypto community and outside it, several experts have alluded to the fragile security of Twitter, after experiencing the largest hack in the history of this network that allowed hackers to get hold of a few thousand dollars. fraudulent.
A few days after Twitter, one of the most used social media platforms worldwide, suffered the biggest hack in history, comments from experts, and even from the community in general, were immediate. Although many argue that this is an attack where some employees were bought by hackers, there is no doubt that the platform needs to strengthen its security system, since during the terrible episode the official and verified accounts of several important personalities and companies from several sectors were terribly affected, promoting a scam that sought to steal money in cryptocurrencies, of the followers of said accounts.
For many, the event did not come to pass, since the modus operandi The scam is nothing new, but rather it is something widely known in society, and that is why not many users fell for the fraud. Still, it is worth mentioning that the steer axle truck promoted by hackers gathered a total of 12.86911529 BTC, which as of the date of this publication represents just over 117 thousand dollars, a sum that is not inconsiderable.
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Expert opinions regarding hacking
Brad GarlinghouseCEO Ripple, announced that first of all, the hack had nothing to do with Bitcoin, as some who are not familiar with the situation argue, but rather it is a security failure or vulnerability in the Twitter platform that allowed hackers to take control of the accounts they wanted; among them that of Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Kanye West, Barack Obama, Joe Biden y Mike Bloomberg, in addition to the accounts of Apple , Uber, Cash App, Gemini, Coinbase, Binance, Kucoin, CoinDesk, Satoshi Lite, Tron Foundation, Bitcoin, Ripple y Bitfinex, among others.
Garlinghouse points out that scams and attempted fraud through platforms like Twitter are not something new, but rather that they have been going on for several years but that the managers of these networks have not taken real actions to prevent the continuity of these. attacks against users and followers. Likewise, Garlinghouse points out that he perfectly understands the level of annoyance that currently exists among followers, and that Twitter requires serious measures to guarantee the safety of users and that they can regain trust in the network.
Likewise, the CEO of Ripple also highlighted that fortunately the community reached the consensus that it should, that Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency promoted during the hack, had nothing to do with the attack but rather it was a security flaw. Twitter. Garlinghouse mentioned that:
“It seems there is finally consensus across the board that this hack is NOT an encryption issue, this is a social media platform issue.”
On the other hand, Garlinghouse also highlighted that Twitter's response was quite slow, and that a few days after the attack he was able to regain access to his hacked account.
Twitter's response to the events
Since the massive hack became known, Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, stated that they would take immediate security measures to stop the attack, among which was the temporary suspension of the affected accounts to prevent fraudulent messages from continuing to travel the network. Likewise, the platform and those affected were able to eliminate all messages that promote the “Crypto For Health” to prevent more users from falling into it.
Dorsey also published a tweet where they showed how sorry they were for the situation that occurred. Now Twitter issued a release formal where it explains to the entire community what the facts were, in addition to its current commitment to guarantee the security of users and recover their level of trust, considering that this network has an average of 340 million active users.
First, Twitter indicates that the massive hack targeted a total of 130 important accounts, among which the hackers only reset 45 accounts to establish new email addresses and passwords for access. Among the affected accounts, those of businessmen, magnates and important political figures stand out, as well as those of transportation, technology, electronic payment services and cryptocurrency companies.
Although the investigation is still ongoing, Twitter committed to guaranteeing new levels of security on the platform, as well as training its employees in these measures and cybersecurity in order to prevent another event of this type from taking place.
For its part, another of the measures taken by the platform at this time is to not allow the publication of cryptocurrency addresses in tweets, although they have not made it known whether this is a temporary or permanent measure.
Past events similar to the current hack
Although the platform's official statement may suggest that Twitter is committing to developing new and better security measures, and we hope that is the case, it is worth remembering that this massive hack is not the first in the history of the platform, although it is the largest to date.
At the end of 2019 Twitter reported of a vulnerability in its system that allowed hackers to insert malicious code to view non-public information or take control of user accounts. Then, for those same dates, Twitter reported about a hacker who had been using fake accounts to manipulate the network's API and match usernames to phone numbers. Most of the IP addresses of those accounts came from Israel, Iran and Malaysia, Twitter reported. For its part, Twitter published statements about these vulnerabilities several weeks after the date they were detected.
However, with respect to the current attack, it is important to highlight that Twitter enjoys a high level of importance and power, becoming one of the widely used information platforms par excellence worldwide. Large politicians, organizations and more use Twitter to share important and interesting information with their followers, and that is why many experts consider that due to the importance of this network, the platform should be concerned about enjoying a high level of security, one that would prevent a hack like the one that happened from taking place.
Fortunately for many, the hacking pointed to a fraud in which the hackers only wanted to obtain easy money, and not to publish false messages that would affect society in a worse way: like a war between countries.
Bitcoin Was it affected by the events?
The leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization and the most widely used worldwide has previously been linked to fraudulent activities such as money laundering and terrorist financing. However, several major research and analysis companies, such as Chainalysis, made reports showing that, although Bitcoin is used by some for illegal activities, the numbers had been quite exaggerated and do not correspond to real figures, and all this due to the qualities of Bitcoin.
While the information that most of society believed was that cryptocurrency was private, now the documented and available information about Bitcoin shows that it is not. Bitcoin offers pseudo-anonymity, which is not the same as anonymity, so the network is not actually preferred by criminals for their illegal activities; this position still belongs to the US dollar, according to reports.
So, although with the recent Twitter hack, the word Bitcoin became a trend, and some people, who have not taken the time to analyze what happened, are talking about Bitcoin as a scam, the truth is that the cryptocurrency was only used as the way to obtain income and has nothing to do with hacking. The security failure was from Twitter, which presumes that one of its employees facilitated access to hackers in exchange for money.
Although the cryptocurrency was used to promote the scam, the truth is that the Bitcoin network has never been the victim of any attack throughout its 11 years of life.
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