Hackers Attack Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Twitter Account

The high-profile Twitter account of Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter has been hacked.

After hacking the account, the attacker “OurMine” posted a tweet saying “Hey, its OurMine, we are testing your security” that was followed by release of a few Vine videos, which cross-posted to Dorsey’s Twitter feed.

Earlier, hackers with the name “OurMine” had also attacked social media accounts of other CEOs, like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai (via a Quora account), although attacking a CEO’s account on his own platform seems to be a new trend.

It is interesting to see here that Twitter itself was not the source of the compromise as “OurMine” posted messages to Dorsey’s account through Vine. It is however embarrassing for Twitter as Vine is also owned by Twitter. Experts believe Dorsey possibly had an old password on his Vine account, or the Vine account was connected to some other service that was compromised. This probably enabled OurMine to have access to Dorsey’s Vine account.

Just last month, Twitter, as a proactive measure, had locked millions of accounts to get in front of these leaks.

“The purported Twitter @names and passwords may have been amassed from combining information from other recent breaches, malware on victim machines that are stealing passwords for all sites, or a combination of both. Regardless of origin, we’re acting swiftly to protect your Twitter account,” reads a June blog post from Twitter.

“In each of the recent password disclosures, we cross-checked the data with our records. As a result, a number of Twitter accounts were identified for extra protection. Accounts with direct password exposure were locked and require a password reset by the account owner.”

Twitter’s account security tips suggest users to use strong passwords, use login verification and, check all third-party applications that have permission to access the Twitter account.

“We suggest you review third-party applications that have access to your account from time to time. You can revoke access for applications that you don’t recognize or that are Tweeting on your behalf by visiting the Applications tab in your account settings,” reads Twitter’s description.

Tips to Protect you Online Accounts from Hackers:

– Use a unique password for each site you use on Internet. And if you want to use the same password, ensure it is long enough, so that an average hacker is not able to acquire it in a brute-force attack.

– Keep you contact and recovery information updated.

– Use two-factor authentication service if it is available with a website.

– Keep an eye on apps connected to your account, and disconnect a service if it is old, out of use or not recognized by use.