It’s not everyday that the founder of one of the world’s most popular social media sites gets hacked. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Twitter account was compromised this weekend and was noticed after hackers posted racial slurs as well as a bomb threat on his account.
The Associated Press sadi that the tweets included messages such as “Hitler is innocent” and, using a vulgarity, asked “bald skeleton head tramp.”
You would think that a big name CEO would have the necessary precausions and safety nets. Twitter declined to confirmed whether or not Dorsey had a two-factor authentication account.
Here’s exactly how that happened:
The phone number associated with the account was compromised due to a security oversight by the mobile provider. This allowed an unauthorized person to compose and send tweets via text message from the phone number. That issue is now resolved.
— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) August 31, 2019
What that means is that, the CEO’s Twitter account was hacked into by one of the third-party websites Twitter acquired in 2010 that allows users to SMS their tweets.
Dorsey was likely a victim of SIM swapping, reports CNN. It is when a hacker will convince a mobile carrier employee to switch a phone number to the hacker’s device. Creepy isn’t it?
According to Variety, this isn’t the first time prominent Twitter accounts have been taken over by hackers. Past victims of similar hacks include Netflix, HBO and Marvel.
This is not the first time Dorsey has been hacked. In 2016, his account was taken over by the hacker group OurMine, which also attacked other high-profile social media leaders, including the Facebook account of CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
