Eli Lilly lost USD15 billion in market cap to a social engineering attack. The attack happened only days after Twitter announced a USD8 fee for the blue check mark verification last Wednesday. Following the social engineering attack, Twitter suspended the option.
Since Twitter first applied the option, parody accounts of known companies and individuals got the blue checkmark by paying the fee. But, few financial losses occurred during this short time, leading many to ignore the dangers fake accounts create. Now that Eli Lilly has lost billions, Twitter will have to take social engineering attacks (SEA) more seriously.
Interestingly, the attackers only managed to devalue Eli Lilly’s market cap rather than stealing its money.
Twitter must handle social engineering attacks to improve cybersecurity practices on the platform.