Mankind was introduced to a new threat in the form of cyber security, since the advent of the internet. With the ability to access the web and other online platforms, comes the vulnerability to cyber espionage. While internet providers try their best to secure their servers, they sometimes fail to protect their users from black hats who are brilliant enough to break through their layers of encryption.

Twitter, being a hub of possibilities has been a primary target for these hackers. The wrong person getting a hold of a prominent Twitter account could lead to some disastrous misinformation being put out and owing to the trust people place on influencers, the aforementioned misinformation is often always acted upon, sometimes causing terrible harm to society.

This was the case earlier today as a slew of hacks were made. Just to mention a few, Kanye West, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and other high profile individuals were the target of these hackers.

?BREAKING NEWS?

Many prominent US billionaires targeted by hackers on Twitter in an apparent #Bitcoin  scam!

Targets included Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Barack Obama#twitterhacked #ThursdayThoughts pic.twitter.com/dDgtwkkhMv

— jacob (@j_acob_) July 16, 2020

It began with the Twitter account of SpaceX’ CEO, Elon Musk, putting out a tweet, claiming that he was feeling generous and promising to double payments made to a certain bit coin address, of which its link was posted. Later on, similar tweets were put out by other Twitter accounts, including Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Kanye West, Jeff Bezos and Kim Kardashian.

As you can imagine, this scam worked, accumulating around $57,000. Twitter in response, has put out a statement that they are investigating the matter. They have advised people to ignore such tweets and have temporarily disabled some of the accounts being used to perpetrate this scam.

Reactions on Twitter are mostly jest like, as a number of people claim that such aggressive capitalists are not in the habit of giving out money. And others just having fun with the trend.

Hushpuppi sent from Dubai to the US & suddenly Elon Musk, Jeff bezoz, Apple, Bill gates, kenye west, Obama, Uber & so on are getting hacked through a bitcoin scam. You can silent the big dog, but you might not be able to hush puppy think abt it #twitterhacked pic.twitter.com/R2jx2c4CF8

— EMALEXX CONCEPT ?? (@emalexxconcept) July 16, 2020

You know something's wrong when this happens. ??#Hacked #twitterhacked #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/dgLpIYRsLJ

— Archit Vyas (@a_plus_v) July 16, 2020

The hackers when people actually started sending them Bitcoin #Hacked #twitterhacked pic.twitter.com/3cAxpa1s6C

— Andrew (@Andrew_H__1) July 15, 2020

Twitter Should Follow this protocol #twitterhacked pic.twitter.com/mD4RbT5vul

— Rishi Bagree ?? (@rishibagree) July 16, 2020

If Jeff Bezos didn't tweet, no one would know it was a scam. The Amazon Capitalist can't give it for free ?!#twitterhacked pic.twitter.com/1o2MsP5RMk

— B o J a k (@bojakversion) July 16, 2020

#twitterhacked
When you realised that you cant save their accounts because yours account is also been hacked pic.twitter.com/79Xoi6UQdK

— RAHUL JAIN (@rahuljaiinn) July 16, 2020

Twitter's security be like:#twitterhacked pic.twitter.com/hOMS201n1k

— नागेश यादव ? (@datsmenagesh) July 16, 2020

Caught on camera the exact moment Twitter security was breached.#twitterhacked pic.twitter.com/x1P8r6oo1y

— ?️DNAN (@Citizen_Adnan) July 16, 2020

After seeing #twitterhacked trending
Verified accounts getting hacked;
Me and my Bois with 10 followers; pic.twitter.com/NiPlePd47C

— Abhinav Tripathi (@the___abhi) July 16, 2020