HackrGG – Learn by Hacking

On July 15, 2020, something bizarre happened on Twitter. In the space of a few hours, the accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Apple, and dozens of others all posted the same message: "Send Bitcoin to this address — I'll double it."

The accounts weren't hacked by breaking encryption or finding a zero-day. The attackers called Twitter employees on the phone.

THE TWITTER HACK — STEP BY STEP

Step 1 Attackers found Twitter employees on LinkedIn — names, job titles, which teams they worked on

Step 2 They called employees pretending to be Twitter's internal IT security team

Step 3 Employees were told: "We're doing an urgent security audit. I need to verify your credentials."

Step 4 Employees handed over their login details. Attackers now had access to Twitter's admin tools.

Step 5 Using the admin panel, they reset passwords and 2FA on any public account they wanted

Step 6 Bitcoin scam posts went live on Obama, Musk, Apple, Biden — $120,000 stolen in hours

No malware. No exploit. Just a phone call.

The entire breach came down to one thing: convincing people to trust a fake authority. This technique — vishing (voice phishing) — is one form of social engineering. The broader category includes phishing emails, fake login pages, impersonation, and pretexting. And it works because it targets humans, not software.

WHY SOCIAL ENGINEERING WORKS

Authority

People comply with requests from perceived authority figures — "IT Security", "the CEO", "your bank"

Urgency

Time pressure bypasses rational thinking — "Your account will be suspended in 30 minutes"

Familiarity

Attackers use OSINT to personalize attacks — knowing your name, team, and manager builds trust

Fear

Security alerts trigger an emotional response that overrides skepticism

How Hackers Took Over Obama's Twitter Account

No malware. No exploit. Just a phone call.