The Twitter hack is insane. We really are living in a cyberpunk world — as if we needed more proof. Thousands of dollars have already been stolen in a massive #CryptoForHealth cryptocurrency scam that has hijacked several high-profile verified accounts.

The hacked accounts read like a Who’s Who of Twitter A-listers with the blue verified badge.

Twitter responds

The Twitter hack took over high-profile accounts, including Apple, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffet.

“Apple, Elon Musk, Joe Biden and Bill Gates were among the accounts compromised in a broadly targeted hack that remained mysterious hours after taking place. Those accounts and many others posted a message promoting the address of a bitcoin wallet with the claim that the amount of any payments made to the address would be doubled and sent back — a known cryptocurrency scam technique.

“In the hours following the initial scam posts, Kim Kardashian West, Jeff Bezos, Barack Obama, Wiz Khalifa, Warren Buffett, YouTuber MrBeast, Wendy’s, Uber, CashApp and Mike Bloomberg also posted the cryptocurrency scam.”

Twitter has acknowledged the situation, which it has referred to as a “security incident”.

In an apparent bid to contain the Twitter hack, the company disabled the ability to post new tweets for some accounts.

“While Twitter hasn’t confirmed how the block works, it appears to only apply to accounts that have been verified by Twitter. Unverified accounts seem to still be able to tweet normally, and verified accounts appear to be able to retweet existing tweets. It’s unclear how broadly Twitter has disabled the ability to send new tweets or how long it will be before verified users are able to tweet again.”

Cryptocurrency community

Before the hacking of these high-profile accounts, the coordinated Twitter hack appeared to first target the accounts of cryptocurrency companies and individuals in the crypto community, including Binance.

“A tweet from Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, suggests that shady activity is happening over on Binance’s Twitter account. Similar nefarious tweets have popped up on the accounts of Gemini, Coinbase, CoinDesk, Kucoin, @Bitcoin, and numerous other companies. Individuals such as Justin Sun, Charlie Lee, King Cobie, AngeloBTC and others have also been targeted. Each tweet involves a scam Bitcoin (BTC) giveaway or trap.

“‘Do not click on this link,’ CZ tweeted on July 15 from his personal media page, providing a link to recent post from Binance’s breached twitter account, warning the public.

The extent of this Twitter hack is alarming. It’s not clear yet how these accounts were hacked. The scammers also took advantage of the blue verified badge that makes these users trusted sources of information. Not to mention the massive audiences these high-profile Twitter users have.

Not only that, but also Twitter’s decision to apparently disable the ability of verified accounts to post new tweets has unintended consequences in the real world. For instance, the inability of official government officials and offices to post critical information.

In our increasingly connected and virtual world, we can expect more cyberpunk moments like this. The cryptocurrency scam is an old one. But now it’s become mainstream because of an unprecedented Twitter hack that used high-profile accounts to spread the scam.

What other horrors — real or virtual — does 2020 have in store for us?