- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state will launch an investigation into the
Twitter hack that compromised dozens of prominent accounts Wednesday. - Hackers took over accounts belonging to Kim Kardashian, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and others and used them to post messages urging people to hand over thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency as part of an apparent scam.
- Twitter has said that the hacks were carried out after attackers compromised a Twitter employee's account using social engineering, but many details remain unclear.
- Cuomo said the security of Twitter's systems is "critical as we approach the upcoming presidential election."
New York State will launch a "full investigation" into the massive Twitter hack that compromised dozens of high profile accounts this week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday morning.
Dozens of high-profile verified accounts, including those of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Kim Kardashian West, and Elon Musk, were taken over by hackers Wednesday. The accounts posted tweets claiming they would double people's contributions of $1,000 in bitcoin as part of an apparent cryptocurrency scam. A slew of Twitter accounts belonging to cryptocurrency exchanges were also compromised.
Cuomo said in a press release the investigation will be led by the New York Department of Financial Services.
"The Twitter hack and widespread takeover of verified Twitter accounts is deeply troubling and raises concerns about the cybersecurity of our communications systems, which are critical as we approach the upcoming presidential election," Cuomo said in the announcement.
New York DFS superintendent Linda Lacewell said in a statement that the attack targeted cryptocurrency servers that are licensed by the department, among others.
"The department will leverage its deep expertise to bring the facts to light," Lacewell said.
A Twitter spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the New York investigation.
Twitter said on Wednesday that it was looking into the causes of the hack, but that it detected "what we believe to be a coordinated attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools."