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Still pretty hilarious that they only managed to get some $100k worth of Bitcoin. Imagine if instead they tweeted from Musk saying something along the lines of

by hmate9 6y ago

Still pretty hilarious that they only managed to get some $100k worth of Bitcoin. Imagine if instead they tweeted from Musk saying something along the lines of Tesla batteries being faulty and they all need to be recalled. Buy some Tesla puts beforehand and that right there is instant millions. Heck, even selling the rights to this hack would have gotten them millions.

xuki 6y ago
$100k is a huge amount for a 17 years old kid.
bisRepetita 6y ago
Yes, but don't you think that your proposed scheme it is very easily traceable and reversible?
- paulgb 6y ago
  I think you're right, but it's funny (scary?) to think about how “newbie trader makes big options trade on TSLA” is probably not exceedingly rare in the age of Robinhood and WallStreetBets.
- bryanrasmussen 6y ago
  well, it was easily traceable what they did anyway. Some schemes can be more easily hidden than others. If you were smart enough to think hey, wait instead of stealing bitcoin I could just use this to cause some stocks to have problems then I can short them. At the point you are smart enough to switch from the dominant way of making money in your enterprise you can probably think up multiple ways to make money that would be even sneakier, and think of ways to hide it, keep the money even if you get caught.
Kiro 6y ago
Sell what? They called Twitter employees pretending to be from the IT department. > Armed with these personal details, the Hackers successfully convinced several Twitter employees that they were from Twitter’s IT department and stole their credentials.
polote 6y ago
> Coinbase blocked approximately 5,670 transfers, valued at approximately $1,294,000.
- cageface 6y ago
  Wasn’t the whole point of crypto that some centralized authority couldn’t do things like this?
  - mrtksn 6y ago
    That feature is a bug. Exchanges are providing a bug correction service. Fraud protection and reversibility are actually massive features of the classical banking helping the markets tik. It could become a feature in a post apocalyptic world where the society doesn’t function. Until that day, a system based on social contract will prevail due to massively better user experience.
    - cageface 6y ago
      A post apocalyptic world where mining farms and the internet still function?
      - saalweachter 6y ago
        Honestly? Depends on the apocalypse. Imagine a climate change apocalypse rather than the nuclear wasteland of Fallout or Mad Max. Let the sea levels rise enough to displace everyone who is within 30 feet of sea level, add in some famines (also brought on by climate change) and since it's the theme this year, a plague or two exacerbated by a billion climate refugees in camps and slums being ignored by anyone still prosperous. You could end up in a situation fairly apocalyptic, but still have the scavenged resources to assemble an internet, assuming there wasn't some sort of anti-tech uprising among the survivors, angry at technology for causing the disaster and determined to smash any surviving technology (and technologists) to prevent it from happening again.
        6y ago
rocqua 6y ago
Bitcoin is a bit traceable. Massively out of the money puts are incredibly traceable, and quite well monitored.
norswap 6y ago
Some insight as to why it's had to make money from the hack: https://fortenf.org/e/security/2020/07/15/twitter-hack.html https://fortenf.org/e/security/2020/07/15/twitter-hack.html
nobody9999 6y ago
>Heck, even selling the rights to this hack would have gotten them millions. IIUC, the crackers did sell access to the hacked accounts[0]: "Sheppard’s alleged alias Chaewon was mentioned twice in stories here since the July 15 incident. On July 16, KrebsOnSecurity wrote that just before the Twitter hack took place, a member of the social media account hacking forum OGUsers named Chaewon advertised they could change email address tied to any Twitter account for $250, and provide direct access to accounts for between $2,000 and $3,000 apiece." But that didn't net anyone millions, but apparently that wasn't the point of the hack[1]: "People within the SIM swapping community are obsessed with hijacking so-called “OG” social media accounts. Short for “original gangster,” OG accounts typically are those with short profile names (such as @B or @joe). Possession of these OG accounts confers a measure of status and perceived influence and wealth in SIM swapping circles, as such accounts can often fetch thousands of dollars when resold in the underground." [0] https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/07/three-charged-in-july-15-twitter-compromise/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/07/three-charged-in-july-15... [1] https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/07/whos-behind-wednesdays-epic-twitter-hack/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/07/whos-behind-wednesdays-e...

by hmate9 6y ago

xuki 6y ago

$100k is a huge amount for a 17 years old kid.

bisRepetita 6y ago

Yes, but don't you think that your proposed scheme it is very easily traceable and reversible?

paulgb 6y ago
I think you're right, but it's funny (scary?) to think about how “newbie trader makes big options trade on TSLA” is probably not exceedingly rare in the age of Robinhood and WallStreetBets.
bryanrasmussen 6y ago
well, it was easily traceable what they did anyway. Some schemes can be more easily hidden than others. If you were smart enough to think hey, wait instead of stealing bitcoin I could just use this to cause some stocks to have problems then I can short them. At the point you are smart enough to switch from the dominant way of making money in your enterprise you can probably think up multiple ways to make money that would be even sneakier, and think of ways to hide it, keep the money even if you get caught.

Kiro 6y ago

Sell what? They called Twitter employees pretending to be from the IT department. > Armed with these personal details, the Hackers successfully convinced several Twitter employees that they were from Twitter’s IT department and stole their credentials.

polote 6y ago

> Coinbase blocked approximately 5,670 transfers, valued at approximately $1,294,000.

cageface 6y ago
Wasn’t the whole point of crypto that some centralized authority couldn’t do things like this?
- mrtksn 6y ago
  That feature is a bug. Exchanges are providing a bug correction service. Fraud protection and reversibility are actually massive features of the classical banking helping the markets tik. It could become a feature in a post apocalyptic world where the society doesn’t function. Until that day, a system based on social contract will prevail due to massively better user experience.
  - cageface 6y ago
    A post apocalyptic world where mining farms and the internet still function?
    - saalweachter 6y ago
      Honestly? Depends on the apocalypse. Imagine a climate change apocalypse rather than the nuclear wasteland of Fallout or Mad Max. Let the sea levels rise enough to displace everyone who is within 30 feet of sea level, add in some famines (also brought on by climate change) and since it's the theme this year, a plague or two exacerbated by a billion climate refugees in camps and slums being ignored by anyone still prosperous. You could end up in a situation fairly apocalyptic, but still have the scavenged resources to assemble an internet, assuming there wasn't some sort of anti-tech uprising among the survivors, angry at technology for causing the disaster and determined to smash any surviving technology (and technologists) to prevent it from happening again.
      - 6y ago

rocqua 6y ago

Bitcoin is a bit traceable. Massively out of the money puts are incredibly traceable, and quite well monitored.

norswap 6y ago

Some insight as to why it's had to make money from the hack: https://fortenf.org/e/security/2020/07/15/twitter-hack.html https://fortenf.org/e/security/2020/07/15/twitter-hack.html

nobody9999 6y ago

>Heck, even selling the rights to this hack would have gotten them millions. IIUC, the crackers did sell access to the hacked accounts[0]: "Sheppard’s alleged alias Chaewon was mentioned twice in stories here since the July 15 incident. On July 16, KrebsOnSecurity wrote that just before the Twitter hack took place, a member of the social media account hacking forum OGUsers named Chaewon advertised they could change email address tied to any Twitter account for $250, and provide direct access to accounts for between $2,000 and $3,000 apiece." But that didn't net anyone millions, but apparently that wasn't the point of the hack[1]: "People within the SIM swapping community are obsessed with hijacking so-called “OG” social media accounts. Short for “original gangster,” OG accounts typically are those with short profile names (such as @B or @joe). Possession of these OG accounts confers a measure of status and perceived influence and wealth in SIM swapping circles, as such accounts can often fetch thousands of dollars when resold in the underground." [0] https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/07/three-charged-in-july-15-twitter-compromise/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/07/three-charged-in-july-15... [1] https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/07/whos-behind-wednesdays-epic-twitter-hack/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/07/whos-behind-wednesdays-e...