The Twitter hackers who took over prominent accounts in an apparent bitcoin scam last week gained access to the direct messages of 36 of the 130 users targeted in the attack, the company said Wednesday.
The hackers pried control from accounts for Joe Biden, Elon Musk and tech companies like Apple and Uber — using their platforms to post fraudulent tweets asking for bitcoin.
Of those victims who had their direct messages accessed, only one was a politician — an official in the Netherlands, the company said after completing a review of targeted accounts.
“To date, we have no indication that any other former or current elected official had their DMs accessed,” the company tweeted from its Support account.
“We are communicating directly with any impacted account owners, and will share updates here when we have them,” it continued
The hack resulted in more than 400 payments worth $121,000 pouring into three bitcoin addresses mentioned in the scam tweets, according to Elliptic, a cryptocurrency analysis firm.
Twitter acknowledged that the hackers targeted staffers who had access to internal tools and systems. One employee was reportedly paid off by the hackers to help carry out the unprecedented breach.
The FBI is investigating the attack.
