Twitter says it has 'no evidence' Bitcoin hackers accessed passwords as FBI investigates incident

The FBI is now getting involved in probing this week's massive Twitter hack.
A wide variety of high-profile Twitter accounts, including that of former Vice President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama, were breached on Wednesday in what Twitter called a "coordinated social engineering attack," during which messages were posted on their accounts as part of a Bitcoin scam. The FBI has opened an investigation into the incident, The Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported on Thursday.
"At this time, the accounts appear to have been compromised in order to perpetuate cryptocurrency fraud," the FBI said, per the Journal. The New York Department of Financial Services is also investigating.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Twitter on Thursday provided an update on its investigation, saying "we have no evidence that attackers accessed passwords." TechCrunch notes, though, that a major open question remains whether direct messages were accessed. Twitter's update on Thursday didn't mention that, and asked this question by TechCrunch, a Twitter spokesperson reportedly declined to comment.
Meanwhile, reports emerged on Thursday that a number of users haven't regained access to their accounts since they were locked during the hack, including Donald Trump Jr. and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Twitter said it locked "any accounts that had attempted to change the account's password during the past 30 days" during the incident and is now "working to help people regain access to their accounts ASAP if they were proactively locked." But Twitter warned that since it's "taking extra steps to confirm that we’re granting access to the rightful owner," this "may take additional time."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
-
Forest Lodge: William and Kate's new home breaks with royal tradition
In the Spotlight Wales' said to hope move to 'forever home' in Windsor Great Park will 'leave unhappy memories behind'
-
Cloudbursts: what are the 'rain bombs' hitting India and Pakistan?
The Explainer The sudden and intense weather event is almost impossible to forecast and often leads to deadly flash-flooding and landslides
-
Atoms into gold: alchemy's modern resurgence
Under the radar The practice of alchemy has been attempted for thousands of years
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliable
speed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages