Twitter declined to comment on the security associated with Trump's account, and said that it was “looking into what other malicious activity [the hackers] may have conducted or information they may have accessed.” A company spokesperson declined to specify whether that information potentially includes direct messages.
“It could have been a far worse incident,” says Roi Carthy, CEO of cybersecurity firm Hudson Rock. “It wasn’t a particularly sophisticated operation.”
The bitcoin scam, though profitable, was as simple as it gets. It’s also not clear that the hackers will even be able to cash out, says Tom Robinson, cofounder of blockchain forensics company Elliptic. They used three bitcoin addresses to solicit payments. All of those are empty now, the proceeds dispersed to 12 new addresses, likely until the attackers feel it’s safe to move them again. But despite its reputation, Bitcoin hardly guarantees anonymity.
“If they send the funds straight to a regulated exchange, there’s a good chance they’ll be identified,” says Robinson. “However, if they try to use obfuscation techniques, for example mixers, that will make it more difficult to trace the funds.”
Even if they manage to walk away with the money eventually, it’s not actually that big of a haul, especially relative to the noise the attack made. “It’s a drop in the ocean when it comes to the illicit use of cryptocurrencies,” says Robinson. “The hacker might be extremely sophisticated in terms of exploiting a computer system, but not in terms of monetizing that.”
The relatively small stakes of that score, along with the potentially impactful gains that could have come from a more subtle approach, has sparked some s ..
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