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(Headline) OpenAI Executive’sTwitter Account Hacked to Promote Cryptocurrency Scam
(Lead) On Saturday, April 10th, artificial intelligence and machine learning research lab OpenAI confirmed that the Twitter account of the company’s co-chair and executive, Sam Altman, had been hacked.
The hacker used the compromised account to launch a cryptocurrency scam, tweeting out links to what appeared to be a cryptocurrency giveaway. The tweets, each of which gave out a single letter with a numerical value, formed a private key phrase that allowed those who figured it out to access funds stored in a cryptocurrency wallet. This type of cryptocurrency scam has become increasingly common on Twitter in recent months.
In a statement to the press, OpenAI confirmed that the account had been compromised and said that they are “taking all the necessary steps to prevent something like this from happening again.” The statement went on to say that the company has begun an “in-depth audit” of its security measures.
Altman himself followed up with a statement of his own, apologizing for the incident and vowing to be more vigilant in the future. He also urged Twitter to take more aggressive action in combating this type of scam, “I know it’s difficult, but I think Twitter needs to work harder to stop this kind of activity. There’s still too much opportunity for bad actors to take advantage of users.”
Unfortunately, these types of scams are becoming more and more common on the platform. If Twitter doesn’t take more action, they could find that users, like Altman, are less likely to trust them in the future. In the meantime, users should remain vigilant and be highly suspicious of any offers that seem too good to be true.
