Zuckerberg reclaims hacked accounts
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter and Pinterest accounts have been re-secured, after hackers compromised both accounts on Sunday.
{mosads}The accounts have been “re-secured using best practices,” a Facebook spokesman told Reuters. “No Facebook systems or accounts were accessed,” according to the spokesman.
Zuckerberg’s Twitter account, last used in January 2012, posted a tweet Sunday morning that appeared to have been written by the hacker, claiming that the account information was found in a recently exposed database of LinkedIn passwords.
“Hey, @finkd You were in LinkedIn Datatbase with the password ‘dadada’ ! DM [direct message] for proof,” the tweet read.
The tech mogul’s compromised Pinterest page, meanwhile, was defaced to read “Hacked by OurMine Team,” according to a screen shot posted by VentureBeat, which first reported the incident.
“Hey , we are just testing your security ,please dm us for contact! twitter: twitter.com/_OurMine_,” the site was altered to read.
The linked Twitter account, @_OurMine_, has since been suspended.
Last month, a hacker offered to sell the account information of 117 million LinkedIn users that were stolen as part of a 2012 breach which appears much worse than originally thought.
Around 6.5 million passwords were posted online when the breach occurred in 2012, although LinkedIn never confirmed the scope of the breach. The company rolled out a mandatory password reset for all accounts it believed were compromised.
The company says it is invalidating the passwords of the accounts impacted and contacting affected members to reset their passwords.
But security experts note that many people use the same password for multiple accounts.
The hackers who infiltrated Zuckerberg’s accounts seem to suggest that they were able to use his LinkedIn login, discovered in the stolen database, to access other accounts belonging to the tech CEO.
Security experts are advising all users of LinkedIn to change their passwords and replace any payment cards associated with their account.
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