S5 - Episode 001 – The Day that Twitter Died
From Cyber Distortion Podcast Series by Jason Popillion and Kevin Pentecost
February 18, 2026 · 29 min · Season 5 · Episode 1
About this episode
This episode explores the audacious social engineering hack of Twitter orchestrated by a teenager, revealing the psychological tactics and security lessons learned from the incident.
Cyber Distortion Podcast – Hosted by Kevin Pentecost & Jason Popillion On July 15, 2020 , the unthinkable happened: dozens of the world's most powerful voices — Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Joe Biden, Apple, Uber, and more — suddenly blasted the same message out to millions of followers. A promise that sounded too good to be true… because it was. What looked like a generous giveaway turned into one of the most audacious social engineering hacks in tech history — all orchestrated not by a foreign syndicate, not by an elite hacker collective… but by a 17-year-old from Tampa, Florida . In this episode of The Cyber Distortion Podcast , we peel back the curtain on the incredible story of Graham Ivan Clark — the mastermind behind the 2020 Twitter bitcoin scam . How did a teenager with no access to Twitter's code base infiltrate its inner systems? What dark psychology powered the attack? And how did a stunt that netted six figures in Bitcoin come crashing down in just hours? Join Kevin Pentecost and Jason Popillion , together bringing over 50 years of cyber expertise , as we: - Break down the hacker's journey from online forums to global headlines - Decode the social engineering…
People in this episode
Hosts: Kevin Pentecost, Jason Popillion
Topics covered
- social engineering
- cybersecurity
- hacking
- bitcoin scam
- human error
- digital security
Keywords
- Twitter hack
- Graham Ivan Clark
- cyber attack
- bitcoin
- social engineering
- cybersecurity
- human error
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Apple, Uber
Places: Tampa, Florida
More episodes of Cyber Distortion Podcast Series
- S5 - Episode 004 – Ashley Madison: Infidelity Unmasked · May 1, 2026 · 41 min
- S5 - Episode 003 – Stuxnet: Zero-Day Cataclysmic Warfare · April 15, 2026 · 34 min
- S5 - Episode 002 – Cicada 3301 · March 26, 2026 · 44 min
- S4 - Episode 014 – CYBR.HAK.CON: The L33T DFW Hacker Conference (w/ Michael Farnum & Phillip Wylie) · December 22, 2025 · 1h 20m
- S4 - Episode 013 – The Cyber Crystal Ball: Predictions & Pitfalls (w/ Paul Furtado from Gartner) · November 14, 2025 · 1h 12m
- S4 - Episode 012 – Zero Trust, Zero Confusion (w/ Rob Allen) · October 15, 2025 · 1h 10m
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