Twitter hack was orchestrated by group of young pals

[tarekma7]

Three young friends - including a teen who lives in his mom's basement and another with the username 'lol' - hijacked Twitter's most high-profile accounts in a Bitcoin scam that spiraled out of control

Fresh details emerged in the massive security breach at Twitter on Wednesday
Hackers targeted more than 130 accounts, many of them high-profile
Attack originally began as an attempt to take over rare, coveted accounts
Known as 'OG accounts' they consist of a single character or short word
Mysterious hacker 'Kirk' with admin access worked with two young brokers
Brokers sold OG accounts such as @6 to eager gamers before attack escalated


Hackers involved in the high-profile hijacking of Twitter accounts earlier this week were a group of young pals with no links to state or organized crime, according to a new report.

The attack, which Twitter and the FBI are investigating, started with a playful message between hackers on the platform Discord, a chat service popular with gamers, according to the New York Times.

Cybersecurity experts were stunned by the startling revelation that Wednesday's breach, unprecedented in scale for the social media site, seemingly amounted to youthful hijinks.


'An incident such as this could have extraordinary serious consequences - manipulation of the markets, disinformation relating to an election, etc,' Brett Callow, a threat analyst at cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, told DailyMail.com.

'However, in this case, reporting suggests that the hack was carried out by a group of young people who may have done nothing worse than execute a bitcoin scam,' he said. 'Twitter got lucky.'


The attack unfolded when a mysterious ringleader, known by the username 'Kirk', first approached other participants online late on Tuesday, claiming that he worked at Twitter and showing off his ability to hijack accounts, according to Times interviews with four people connected with the scheme.

'Kirk' offered to hijack coveted 'OG accounts' and proposed that the group could sell them. OG, short for 'original gangster', accounts consist of a username with single character or short word, such as @6, @b, or @DeAd, which would have been created early in Twitter's history. Such accounts are highly coveted by hackers and gamers.

'Kirk' convinced two other young people, who go by the monikers 'lol' and 'ever so anxious' to act as brokers for the sale of OG names, and the two posted an ad on the forum OGusers.com, where they are well known, according to the Times.

The user 'lol' did not confirm his real-world identity to the Times, but said he lived on the West Coast and was in his 20s. 'Ever so anxious' said he was 19 and lived in the south of England with his mother.

After 'Kirk' proved that he had the ability to take over any Twitter account, the group began hijacking and selling coveted OG usernames, including @anxious, which 'ever so anxious' had long desired.

Continue reading HERE