The X account for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was hacked today to issue a fake announcement on the approval of Bitcoin ETFs on security exchanges.
The announcement came this afternoon in a now-deleted tweet from the SEC's hacked X account.
The tweet included an image of SEC Chairperson Gary Gensler with a quote promoting the alleged approval.
The news quickly spread, with many cryptocurrency and mainstream news sites covering the story and Bitcoin prices briefly spiking.
Bitcoin's jump in price was shortlived as it pulled back on news that the SEC's account on X was hacked to spread the fake news.
BleepingComputer contacted the SEC with further questions about how they were breached and if 2FA was enabled on the account.
X has been overwhelmed by a massive wave of account breaches over the past month, as numerous verified organizations have been hacked to spread cryptocurrency scams and links to wallet drainers.
Yesterday, the Netgear and Hyundai MEA X accounts were hacked to promote fake cryptocurrency sites that stole cryptocurrency from wallets that connect to the Web3 site.
Web3 security firm CertiK was also hacked last Friday to promote a wallet drainer, and cybersecurity firm Mandiant was hijacked on Wednesday, even though it had two-factor authentication enabled.
In addition to account hijacks, threat actors have taken to X's advertising platform to create what feels like an endless stream of malicious advertisements promoting crypto scams and sites pushing wallet drainers.
X users fed up with constant stream of malicious crypto ads.
Netgear, Hyundai latest X accounts hacked to push crypto drainers.
Web3 security firm CertiK's X account hacked to push crypto drainer.
Hackers hijack govt and business accounts on X for crypto scams.
Mandiant's account on X hacked to push cryptocurrency scam.
This Cyber News was published on www.bleepingcomputer.com. Publication date: Tue, 09 Jan 2024 22:35:23 +0000