Search for answers follows Twitter cyberattack

Accounts of the social media platform's most prominent users were hacked Wednesday as part of a cryptocurrency scam. NBC's Dan Scheneman reports.

(NBC News) — An investigation has been launched into a massive security breach at Twitter after the social media platform was targeted by a cyberscam.

The accounts of some of Twitter’s most famous users, from former President Obama to tech billionaire Jeff Bezos were targeted.

Many of the hacked accounts invited users to submit bitcoin to a single address with the promise of doubling the user’s money.

The FBI says the accounts: “appear to have been compromised in order to perpetuate cryptocurrency fraud,” adding “We advise the public not to fall victim to this scam by sending cryptocurrency or money in relation to this incident.”

Twitter revealed the hack was “a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools.”

“We’re looking into what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed” The company added

That activity is raising questions about the platforms role in politics. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, was among the victims.

“It does give Twitter and the rest of social media industry an wake up call to prepare for election day,” says NBC National Security Analyst Clint Watts.

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