Trump's team working with Twitter to ensure his account is secure
White House says Trump will 'remain on Twitter' and his account was 'not jeopardized' during the hack
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany responds to the Twitter hack of many high-profile accounts on Wednesday.
The White House has been in "constant contact" with Twitter over the past 18 hours to ensure the president's account is secure, according to Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
"The president will remain on Twitter but his account was secure and not jeopardized during these attacks," McEnany added.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TWTR | NO DATA AVAILABLE | - | - | - |
The hack was part of a Bitcoin scam on Wednesday that raised more than $117,000 from unsuspecting followers, according to Bitcoin-tracking website Blockchain.com.
TWITTER'S BLUE CHECKMARK EXPLAINED
High-profile accounts that were compromised include former President Barack Obama, former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, billionaire Bill Gates and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. The hack also affected companies like Apple and Uber.
The hacked accounts posted tweets soliciting the public to send bitcoin to a specific address.
“I am giving back to the community,” some of the tweets stated. “All Bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled! If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000. Only doing this for 30 minutes.”
The tweets were then followed by a code for a Bitcoin wallet.
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The FBI has opened an investigation.
“The FBI is investigating the incident involving several Twitter accounts belonging to high profile individuals that occurred on July 15, 2020," the FBI's San Francisco Division said in a statement. "At this time, the accounts appear to have been compromised in order to perpetuate cryptocurrency fraud. We advise the public not to fall victim to this scam by sending cryptocurrency or money in relation to this incident. As this investigation is ongoing, we will not be making further comment at this time.”
The New York State Department of Financial Services also announced on Thursday that it would be investigating the matter, according to a press release.
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Twitter Support said that once it became aware of the incident, it "immediately locked down the affected accounts and removed Tweets posted by the attackers."
The platform also locked any accounts that had attempted to change their password within the past 30 days and "limited functionality for a much larger group of accounts, like all verified accounts," including those with no evidence of being compromised.
"We're working to help people regain access to their accounts ASAP if they were proactively locked. This may take additional time since we’re taking extra steps to confirm that we’re granting access to the rightful owner," Twitter Support said in an update Thursday. "We’ve been working around the clock and will continue to provide updates here."