After the attack on a variety of high-profile accounts last July 15, the network has disabled user’s capability to share cryptocurrency addresses
Following the mass Twitter hack that occurred last Wednesday, July 15th, the social media networking site appears to have disabled the ability to share strings of numbers and letters on its platform.
It is likely that this move was made to prevent fraudsters and cybercriminals from sharing cryptocurrency addresses, which are made up of a long and randomised alphanumeric string, in an effort to solicit cryptocurrency from netizens.
The breach that occurred on Wednesday led to more than $100,000 in defrauded Bitcoin to the same Bitcoin address that was tweeted by all the compromised accounts, with the promise of outside rewards for those who sent in their “donations”.
As of writing, tests carried out by The Block Research indicate that XRP, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Monero addresses can no longer be shared on Twitter.
“This request looks like it might be automated. To protect our users from spam and other malicious activity, we can’t complete this action right now. Please try again later.”
This is the message produced after attempts to post content that has a string of numbers and letters.
Whale Alert, a Twitter handle dedicated to posting large transactions as they happen on the blockchain, has confirmed that they can no longer post transfers nor manually add them. The account continues sharing information through their Telegram channel.
The social media site has assured its users that their team is currently looking into the situation as well, and that they will release updates should any new developments arise.
“We know they used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf. We’re looking into what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed and will share more here as we have it”, the company’s support account said last Wednesday.
High-profile accounts that were compromised during the coordinated hack include that of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Kanye West, Apple, Uber, Binance, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and more. Users began suspecting malicious activity when they quickly realised that these accounts were expressing the same message and format in each tweet.
The hackers, under the guise of these accounts, claimed that they were raising funds for an organisation named Crypto For Health. They added that the funds would either go towards supporting healthcare workers and the community at large, or be sent back to the sender in double the amount.