Twitter victime d’une cyber-attaque de grande ampleur

L’actu

Les comptes Twitter de personnalités américaines, dont Bill Gates, Elon Musk ou encore Joe Biden et Barack Obama, ainsi que de grandes entreprises américaines, comme Apple et Uber, ont été victimes, mercredi 15 juillet dans l’après-midi, d’un piratage massif utilisé pour promouvoir une escroquerie aux cryptomonnaies. Des messages sur ces comptes piratés, pour la plupart rapidement effacés, invitaient les internautes à faire parvenir des bitcoins à des adresses spécifiques, prétendant renvoyer en échange le double des montants transférés. Lire l’article du Monde

La réaction

In a statement, the social media company said it locked down all verified accounts – identified with blue ticks or blue checks – to prevent the scam spreading. “We limited functionality for a much larger group of accounts, like all verified accounts (even those with no evidence of being compromised), while we continue to fully investigate this,” Twitter said. “This was disruptive, but it was an important step to reduce risk.” Lire l’article de The Guardian

L’explication

Twitter has shed some light on the unprecedented attack on Wednesday that resulted in numerous takeovers of high-profile accounts including those of President Barack Obama, Democratic candidate Joe Biden, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. In a series of tweets posted this evening under its support channel, Twitter said that its internal systems were compromised by the hackers, confirming theories that the attack could not have been conducted without access to the company’s own tools and employee privileges. Lire l’article de The Verge

La question à 12 bitcoins

L’identité des hackers est pour l’instant inconnue, mais il est possible de tracer les fonds sur la blockchain où toutes les transactions sont publiques. Chainalysis a relevé qu’une partie des fonds siphonnés a été envoyée sur une autre adresse Bitcoin probablement contrôlée par l’auteur du piratage ou un complice. Cette adresse réalise des transactions depuis le 5 mars 2020 et une étude plus profonde permettra, peut-être, de mettre la main sur les responsables. Par ailleurs, de nombreux malfaiteurs sont identifiés au moment où ils tentent d’échanger leurs cryptomonnaies sur des bourses numériques. Lire l’article de Capital

L’analyse

The implications are huge given the fact that the most powerful and popular accounts have been hacked. Given the influence Twitter has over political conversations globally, and in the US in particular, the verified handles of so many politicians being compromised at the same time does not augur well for the platform. At least one Senator, Josh Hawley from Missouri, has written to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey asking for an explanation once the problem has been fixed. Twitter will have some explaining to do to the American political establishment in the coming days. Lire l’article de The Indian Express

L’éclairage

As bad as Wednesday’s rampage was — and it was bad — the real fallout came as business leaders, politicians and everyday users realized that their chosen network for real-time information is even more vulnerable to being hijacked than they thought. Experts pointed out that the plot to steal bitcoin was small potatoes compared with the much worse things a malefactor could do with access to Twitter’s highest profile accounts. Lire l’article d’Axios