Earlier this month some smart alecks managed to breach the defenses of one of the most ubiquitous media platforms, access the mouthpiece of the leader of one of the world¡¯s most populous countries, and grab the opportunity to broadcast whatever they wanted to 73 million followers. And they used it to pump cryptocurrency.
It¡¯s almost laughable that yet another Twitter Inc. hack ¡ª this time on the account of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ¡ª should once again become the vehicle for spruiking bitcoin. ¡°India has officially adopted bitcoin as legal tender,¡± the tweet sent by hackers from his account read. ¡°The government has officially bought 500 BTC and is distributing them to all residents of the country.¡±
As implausible as that message sounds, the entire incident ¡ª from exploit to outcome ¡ª tells us a lot about hacking culture and the variety of actors out there trying to break into computer systems.
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