Cyber attack on Twitter accounts: FBI takes 2 into custody

WASHINGTON, United States – Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI has arrested two suspects in connection with the hacking of several accounts on Twitter on July 15, 2020.

In a statement following the arrests, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Sanjay Virmani said  that during this attack, numerous verified Twitter accounts were compromised, to include the accounts of prominent politicians, industry leaders, and well-known U.S. companies.

Virmani added that after the accounts were compromised, fraudulent tweets were posted to conduct a cryptocurrency scam but that to address and mitigate this security breach, Twitter disabled all verified Twitter accounts for several hours.

He added that investigation revealed that hackers had also compromised numerous non-verified Twitter accounts, which were targeted based on the perceived value of their screen names. He explained that the goal of FBI was to identify those responsible, put a stop to their illegal activity, and hold them responsible for these crimes.

“Today’s arrests represent just the first step for law enforcement. Our investigation will continue to identify anyone else who may have been involved in these crimes”, he vowed, adding “ as of today, the FBI and our partners have taken two individuals into custody. They are facing either federal or state criminal charges, including computer intrusion, fraud, money laundering, wire fraud, and identity theft”, he said.

The FBI special agent acknowledged that success was achieved thus far due to good collaboration.

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“We could not do our work effectively without close working relationships with these entities, and this investigation is a great example of how important they truly are to holding those who commit crimes responsible for their actions”, he said.

According to him, cyber investigations often take years, but that in this case “we were able to conduct our investigation and make a number of arrests in just a few weeks.

“In this investigation, we worked with the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Northern District of California and the Middle District of Florida, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), FBI Tampa Division, the Office of the State Attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit in Tampa, Florida, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom”, he said and called on the public to come forward if they know of any additional information relating to this case to contact FBI San Francisco, please go to tips.fbi.gov or call 415-553-7400. Tips can remain anonymous.