Case study: OSINT in a real-world cybersecurity incident
In July 2020, Twitter experienced a significant security breach where high-profile accounts were compromised and used to perpetrate a Bitcoin scam. The accounts of notable figures and organizations, including Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Apple, were hijacked to promote a cryptocurrency scam (https://www.theverge.com/22163643/twitter-hack-bitcoin-scam-july-2020-elon-musk).
The attack began with a phishing operation targeting Twitter employees. The attackers conducted a spear-phishing attack via phone, targeting specific Twitter employees with access to internal tools.
The attackers posed as representatives from Twitter’s IT department and convinced employees to reveal their credentials. This successful social engineering tactic provided them with access to Twitter’s internal systems.
After the attack, OSINT played a critical role in understanding the breach’s nature. Researchers and cybersecurity...
