Facial recognition can help prevent future Bitcoin (BTC) scams like those that hit Twitter and YouTube, said Rod Hsu, president and co-founder of virtual currency platform Coincurve. During an interview with Cointelegraph, Hsu said Bitcoin is an electronic form of currency that is non-reversible and somewhat anonymous, “coupled with this gap in understanding makes it appealing for scam artists.” But because of the negative publicity the cryptocurrency got with the scams, it may have discouraged many from adopting it. “Due to the nature of this, people may see scams and Bitcoin being synonymous. In either traditional payment methods or Bitcoin, …

Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law. Editor’s note The U.S.–China trade war continues its brazen spillover into tech. In response to concerns over where data from TikTok and WeChat was going, President Trump sent out twin executive orders banning both applications last night. The new action is distinct from, for example, squeezing Huawei out. Huawei’s hardware is tied up in international supply chain and military networks, forming a more obvious security risk. TikTok and WeChat are consumer apps, more occupied with viral dance videos than top secret …

The teen behind July's massive Twitter breach had a digital courtroom hearing on Aug. 5. The trial was postponed, however, due to a highly irregular breach in the hearing's Zoom call. During a "Zoom bombing," infiltrators "broke into the call to interrupt the proceedings," said the Tampa Bay Times on Aug. 5. "Posing as CNN and BBC News, they repeatedly interrupted the meeting with rap music, movie dialogue and shouting," the outlet added. The perpetrators then proceeded to project pornographic materials onto viewer's computers. The Florida judge on the case dismissed the hearing. The alleged hacker pleaded a lesser bail …

Graham Ivan Clark, the 17-year-old resident of Tampa, Florida, who is accused of leading the hack of several celebrity Twitter accounts pleaded not guilty to all allegations on Tuesday in Hillsborough Circuit Court. According to the report from Tampa Bay Times, prosecutors have pressed 30 charges against Clark for which he may be sentenced for 200 years in prison. The court documents received by the news outlet accused Clark of 17 counts of communications fraud, 11 counts of illegal use of personal information, one count of organized fraud over $5,000 and one count of illegally accessing a computer or electronic …

During an Aug. 4 panel on legal compliance within the cryptocurrency industry, major figures noted recent shifts in public perception of the industry, pointing to arrests within weeks of the Twitter hack as an example of how effective blockchain analytics can be for solving crime. The panel is part of an ongoing series from the Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists. Twitter and law enforcement Lana Schwartzmann, chief compliance officer for Paxful, said regarding the Twitter hack “It’s quite amazing how different this is from what we’d see in the traditional fiat world. You’d never have this resolved so quickly.” …

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Bitcoin rallies 13% to break through $11,000 After weeks of stagnation, Bitcoin finally roared to life this week. Late on Monday, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency surged to a new 2020 high of $11,394. The bull run meant almost 95% of Bitcoin’s supply was in profit. Bloomberg released a mid-year report predicting BTC could soon rise …

Authorities have taken a 17-year-old into custody, alleging the not-yet-adult cooked up the massive Twitter breach. "Early this morning, the FBI, IRS, US Secret Service, and Florida law enforcement placed a 17-year-old in Tampa, Florida, under arrest — accusing him of being the 'mastermind' behind the biggest security and privacy breach in Twitter’s history," a July 31 article from The Verge said. The massive exploit saw many top Twitter accounts breached on July 15, including the likes of Elon Musk, Joe Biden and Bill Gates. “Our offices found 30 felony charges against Clark, including organized fraud, communications fraud, identity theft …

Twitter released an update on July 30 revealing how hackers gained access to its internal network and account management tools in the recent attack. It also gave details of additional measures taken to improve security since the hack, which netted 12 Bitcoin (BTC) through targeting the Twitter accounts of celebrities and crypto businesses. Phishing for complements The update confirmed that Twitter had been the victim of a social engineering attack, putting paid to rumors that the hack could have been an inside job. According to the report, the July 15 incident started with a spear-phishing attack, targeting a small number …

Numerous unnecessary employees at Twitter allegedly have the ability to reset users’ accounts and modify their security settings. This is a problem that Jack Dorsey, chief executive officer, and the company’s board were warned about all the way back in 2015. According to Bloomberg, Twitter has over 1,500 workers with the abilities to reset accounts and review user breaches. This led to speculation that the hack on July 15 could have been prevented if timelier actions were taken. Security concerns addressed The report clarified that such credentials gave limited access to most of the workers involved in the social network’s …

Chainlink (LINK), one of the best-performing alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) in 2020, saw another statistic reach a record high, namely the number of Twitter followers. According to market data and research firm CryptoCompare, social media followers of the project are continuously surging past new highs. Researchers at CryptoCompare wrote: “LINK has been one of the standout altcoin performers of 2020 and seems to be going from strength to strength. Its social media followers seem to be growing in tandem as it gains popularity.” Social media metric of Chainlink relative to its price. Source: CryptoCompare Social media metric is not a conventional …

There is more to Tron’s bounty on the Twitter hackers than the company is willing to talk about. An anonymous source contacted this Cointelegraph reporter, asking to be put in touch with Tron to collect the company’s $1 million bounty for identifying the people responsible for last week’s Twitter hack. Cointelegraph extended the courtesy of connecting this source with Tron after examining the highly credible evidence that was on offer. It was surprising to then observe Tron representatives make every excuse to avoid a source who had come forward with legitimate information about the hack the company claimed it wanted …

More than 1,000 Twitter employees and contractors had access to the internal admin panel that enabled last week’s Twitter hack of 130 high profile accounts. According to Reuters on July 24, two former employees have shed light on just how vulnerable Twitter’s security was — and may still be. They said that, in addition to employees, contractors like Cognizant could also have access. Former chief security officer at AT&T Edward Amoroso, told Reuters that such powerful controls should not be available to so many people. “That sounds like there are too many people with access,” he said, adding that staff …