Twitter Blocks Verified Accounts From New Posts in Wake of Massive Hack

Twitter has throttled the functionality of verified accounts in the wake of a massive hacking [...]

By Nicole Drum

Twitter has throttled the functionality of verified accounts in the wake of a massive hacking scheme on Wednesday, effectively preventing certain users from being able to tweet or reset their password while Twitter Support deals with the incident. Earlier in the day, a massive hacking scheme popped on the social media site, impacting a number of major celebrities and public figures such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Joe Bide, Kanye West and others in what appears to be a cryptocurrency scam.

Shortly after the seemingly coordinated hacks, Twitter Support posted that that "we are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly." They followed up a short time later noting that some may experience limited functionality during this process.

"You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident," the update read.

Forensics News' Scott Stedman posted that Twitter had blocked all verified accounts from sending tweets at this time, noting in a series of tweets that the services had been "essentially taken down by hackers" and that the hack had potentially exposed the data of some of the world's most powerful people, specifically direct messages, passwords, email addresses, and credit card numbers.

While there have been some tweets go live from verified accounts since the flip was switched, as it were, including CNN and NBA's official accounts, it's possible that those were pre-scheduled posts.

Wednesday's hack didn't just impact celebrities and public figures, either. A number of companies and brands, including Apple and Uber, and various cryptocurrency-related Twitter accounts, including CoinDesk, Binance, Ripple, and Gemini, were also impacted by the scheme which saw variations of posts that claimed they would be doubling any Bitcoin payment sent to "their" address for a specific amount of time. The posts have, as of the time of this writing, been deleted.

Particularly troubling is that it appears measures that some of the accounts had taken for security generally prior to the hack simply didn't work. Cameron Winklevoss, who serves as a co-founder of Gemini, revealed that the company's account uses two-factor authentication, something that would have theoretically made it more difficult for the account to be compromised.

What do you think of the massive Twitter hack and the subsequent restriction of posting from verified Twitter accounts? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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