Microsoft's X Account Hacked, Posts Clippy Crypto Memes

Microsoft's X account was hacked yesterday to promote Clippy-themed cryptocurrency.

As The Verge reports, the @Microsoft account, which has 13 million followers, reposted a tweet from a Clippy crypto account, changed its profile image to feature Clippy, and then posted a message saying it would bring Clippy back if it got 500,000 likes.

The account later posted a lengthy, oddly worded, and rather lawyerly tweet apologizing for the Clippy-related messages. "To be clear, Microsoft does not support, endorse, sponsor, or authorize any cryptocurrency or crypto-related token," it said. "We are taking this matter seriously and will pursue appropriate legal action to have the unauthorized token and related materials removed."

That tweet was later deleted, while Clippy has been removed from the profile image.

A Microsoft spokesman told The Verge that it "confirmed unauthorized access to our account on X, including posts that did not come from Microsoft. The account has been secured, and the unauthorized posts have been removed, and we are continuing to investigate the circumstances."

In an era of AI going rogue to hack third-party sites, an X account takeover to push crypto scams seems almost old-school. Remember when a teenager hacked the accounts of President Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and others to encourage the public to donate Bitcoin to a digital wallet? (He later got a three-year sentence.) Or when someone used a SIM-swap attack to hack the SEC account to push Bitcoin ETFs (Exchange-Traded funds)? (That guy got 14 months.)

This isn't even the first time a Microsoft X account has been compromised. As Bleeping Computer notes, crypto scammers hacked @MicrosoftIndia in 2024 to infect people with cryptocurrency wallet-drainer malware.

Clippy, meanwhile, retired in 2007, but Microsoft tried to revive it last year via an anthropomorphic computer buddy named Mico. Less than a year later, the company demoted its blob-like character from the Copilot app.