Twitter freezes users accounts as it investigates hacking of Obama, Kanye, Elon Musk profiles, among others

Hours after it was reported that several Twitter accounts of politicians and celebrities were hacked, Twitter on Thursday (July 16, 2020) said that they are aware of the security incident and were investigating the incident.

In a series of tweets, the Twitter Support acknowledged the security breach, and informed that as they reviewed the incident users may not be able to Tweet or reset their password. 

The tweet read: "We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly."

We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly. — Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 15, 2020

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Jack Dorsey said the company was diagnosing the problem and pledged to share "everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened."

"Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened," he said in a tweet.

Around tens of millions of accounts users were tagetted in the hacking. Multiple high-profile Twitter accounts including US presidential candidate Joe Biden, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, former US President Barack Obama and billionaire Elon Musk were hacked on Wednesday. 

Most of these accounts were used to solicit digital currency. From Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk's account one tweet soliciting cryptocurrency was removed and, sometime later, another one appeared, and then a third.

Among the others affected are Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, investor Warren Buffett, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and the corporate accounts for Uber and Apple.