A Twitter hacking scheme which targeted high profile users such as Elon Musk and Barack Obama began as a prank between a group of three hackers, according to a report.
The biggest attack in the social media platform’s history began with a user named “Kirk” who bragged to two teenagers that he worked at Twitter and could access even the most high profile accounts, according to The New York Times.
One of the teens lived in the US and went by the online name “lol,” and the other, who lived in the UK, used the online name “ever so anxious.”
The UK-based teenager denied working with “Kirk” to take over accounts belonging to Joe Biden, Bill Gates and others. The hackers posted messages on the accounts suggesting followers make thousands in bitcoin “donations.”
“Based on what we know right now, we believe approximately 130 accounts were targeted by the attackers in some way as part of the incident,” Twitter said. “For a small subset of these accounts, the attackers were able to gain control of the accounts and then send Tweets from those accounts.”
Authorities are still trying to figure out the real identities behind the Twitter monikers of the hackers.
