Google G Suite Twitter Compromised

Notice: This page is a freshly imported case study from the original repository. The original content was in a different format, and may not have relevant information for all sections. Please help restructure the content by moving information from the 'About' section to other sections, and add any missing information or sources you can find. If you are new here, please read General Tutorial on Wikis or Anatomy of a Case Study for help getting started.

G Suite

Google's G Suite Twitter account was breached and used to launch a promoted scam for a 10,000 bitcoin giveaway. The scheme promised to give 10x whatever users would provide. Analysis of the receive wallet does not show that any bitcoin were received, so it appears that the scheme was not successful in stealing any funds.

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

About G Suite

"Google’s G Suite is a suite of applications for businesses. It offers cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products." "With G Suite, Google has been developing an alternative office package that serves the needs of companies with their everyday work. You can use Gmail for emailing, Google Calendar for appointments, Docs for word processing, Sheets for calculations, and Slides for presentations, just to name a few."

"Cryptocurrency giveaway scams work by offering money to victims. There’s a catch, of course: They must first send a small amount of money to ‘verify their address’. The money in return never shows up and the attackers cash out."

"[I]n the case of the G Suite tweet, [the posts were] successfully "promoted" through Twitter's ad service to appear higher up in followers' feeds."

"Authenticity is a key factor in these scams. Accounts with verified status shown by a blue tick carry more of that. So it makes sense for attackers to hack verified accounts and then use them to impersonate very high profile people with lots of followers."

"On Tuesday[, November 13th, 2018], criminals went one better, managing to compromise the official account of Google’s G Suite." "Cointelegraph reported that the official Twitter account of Google's G Suite was supposedly compromised to promote a Bitcoin (BTC) giveaway scam. Scammers reportedly spread a message luring users to participate in a fraudulent 10,000 BTC giveaway." " This gave them an authentic platform to address the account’s 822,000 followers as Google itself, rather than impersonating it with another hacked account." "It isn’t clear whether Google [was] using two-factor authentication."

"The Bitcoin giveaway scam quickly followed, claiming that G Suite was now accepting cryptocurrency payments and offering a total of 10,000 Bitcoins (BTC) to “all community”. The scammers asked for between 0.1 and 2 BTC, and promised to return ten times the amount sent. They also added a bonus: send 1 BTC or more and get an additional 200% back."

"According to the Hard Fork, the message disappeared barely more than 10 minutes after it had appeared."

"This morning an unauthorized promoted tweet was shared from the G Suite account," a Google spokesperson said in a statement provided to Business Insider. "We removed the tweet and are investigating with Twitter now."

"A Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider that the G Suite account was locked as the team discovered it was "innapropriately accessed," and that the platform would continue to "closely monitor" the situation."

"A quick look at the address posted in the scam revealed no transactions at the time of writing. This is probably because Google removed the post quickly after spotting what had happened."

"In an email to Hard Fork, a Google spokesperson said the following about the incident:"

"This morning an unauthorized promoted tweet was shared from the G Suite account. We removed the tweet and are investigating with Twitter now."

"The [Twitter] platform is apparently taking further steps and investing in "proactive tools" to fight the cryptocurrency scams, says the Twitter spokesperson."

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

Known history of when and how the service was started.
What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
How were people recruited to participate?
Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - Google G Suite Twitter Compromised
Date	Event	Description
November 13th, 2018 1:18:00 PM	First Event	This is an expanded description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost is unknown.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?