The Twitter account of the Ecological Transition Ministry is not the only one to have been hacked in the last few hours. Indeed, it appears that along with the Mite Thousands of profiles have been hacked, not all with a large following. While it seems clear that the matrix of attacks is the same. At the moment, from what ministerial sources explain to our newspaper, the problem has not yet been solved.
The hackers who replaced the ministry logo with the face and name of Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency in the world with over 200 billion in value, also violated the profile of ISPI, the Institute for international politics studies. The Mite has 121,000 followers. The ISPI 73 thousand. But looking beyond national borders, there are thousands of reports.
Behind the attack, an attempted cryptocurrency scam
Go First Airway, an Indian airline, had its profile hacked early in the morning, followed by 208,000 people. But many Twitter accounts, institutional, company or simply users, have been ‘pierced’ to spread the same message: Ethereum, to celebrate the ‘Merge’ made in these hours, give 50 or 100 Ether to those who click a link. For a value of 100 million or 200 million euros. Obviously everything suggests that it is one he cons.
And by clicking that link the user exposes himself to possible scams such as phishing attempts (malicious software installed by opening a link, in fact), or other kind of cryptocurrency scams. The scam was most likely done to take advantage of the attention generated by the Merge, the largest protocol change ever made by a large cryptocurrency, which has perhaps forever changed the mechanism by which transitions within the blockchain are validated. Ethereum.
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From Obama to Wilders, the other politicians hacked on Twitter
The Myth, as striking as it may be that it is a ministry, is not an isolated case. Nor is this kind of attack new. Just to stay in the world of politics, the most famous hacked profile is that of Barack Obama. Year 2000. His account is hacked. And the former US president begins tweeting: “Everyone asks me to give something back to my community. I will do it. Anyone who sends 1000 dollars in Bitcoin to my account will receive 2000 in exchange ”.
Put like this it may seem like a chicken trap, and with little chance of success. But he was successful, according to what the American chronicles reported at the time. Thousands complained of having sent money to a cryptocurrency wallet, convinced by Obama, but above all by the fact that the tweet was an official profile. With a blue tick, then checked. As verified was also the profile of the Mite, among other things.
Shortly after, the account of Joe Biden was hacked. Same scheme. Same promise to ‘give back’ something. In Bitcoin, needless to say. Just as a few weeks later another politician was targeted, this time Dutch: Geert Wilderspresident of the party of liberties, the ultra-right group that has climbed polls and seats in parliament.
Today Wilders is president of the House of Representatives. In the same attack, excellent profiles from the world of technology industry, such as Bill Gates e Elon Musk. Even with them, the pattern was identical. It’s hard to think that they too care little for their privacy and passwords. A sign that perhaps it is true that in terms of security the parts of Twitter have some problems.