The world is lucky that all the Twitter hackers want is bitcoin

Former President Barack Obama and presidential candidate Joe Biden have been compromised. They’re part of a major Twitter hack targeting public figures and politicians. 

Considering the influence that political figures — one in particular — wield on Twitter, the world is lucky that all the people behind this seem to want is bitcoin. 

So far, they’ve also hijacked the accounts of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Uber, Apple, and other celebs, companies, and major players in the cryptocurrency world. The compromised accounts are trying to get people to send them bitcoin.

Image: screenshot: matt binder / mashable

Image: SCREENSHOT: MATT BINDER / MASHABLE

It’s not clear what is happening. Even security experts are confused. The hack is also ongoing: Elon Musk’s account has published and deleted the same tweet promoting the crypto scam multiple times over the past hour.

And that brings us to President Donald Trump, who uses Twitter to announce national and foreign policy, which makes this situation even more terrifying. Imagine if hackers wanted to cause more serious damage.

In many cases, the tweets were only up for minutes. But that was enough time to do damage: scammers have already made more than $50,000 from people who sent bitcoin. What consequences could there be from even minutes of political leaders making specific threats of violence or inciting chaos with racist tweets?

Remember when Trump threatened North Korea on Twitter, repeatedly calling Kim Jong-Un “little rocket man,” and intimating that the country wouldn’t be around much longer? A threat posted by a compromised Trump might not even look like a hack — and could have dizzying consequences.

Coincidentally, researchers from King’s College London released a report today entitled “Escalation by Tweet: Managing the New Nuclear Diplomacy” about the role Twitter plays, and should(n’t) play, in international incidents.

“Twitter, as a company, and alliances such as NATO, also have a role to play in limiting the negative impact of Twitter during crises,” the report reads. “If these findings could be summarised in 280 characters or less, it would be: ‘To manage escalation during crises, stop tweeting.'”

Trump’s Twitter account has already sparked . Following Trump’s lead, Twitter has become the platform of choice for many politicians to speak to the public, make policy announcements, and more. With the hacking of Biden and Obama, the hackers proved that even high-profile politicians are not safe.

The Twitter hack today exposes a serious vulnerability in our political system. The U.S. government currently relies on a fallible and privately owned system to publicize the thoughts and policy pronouncements of its leaders. If it’s prone to this attack, what could someone out for more than bitcoin do?