San Francisco: Twitter said Friday the account of chief executive Jack Dorsey had been “compromised” after a series of erratic and offensive messages were posted.
###
The tweets containing racial slurs and suggestions about a bomb showed up around 2000 GMT on the @jack account of the founder of the short messaging service before being deleted.
###
Some of the tweets contained the hashtag #ChucklingSquad, which was believed to indicate the identity of the hacker group. The same calling card was left behind during recent hacks of other high-profile social media personalities.
###
The messages contained racial epithets, and included a retweet of a message supporting Nazi Germany.
###
Twitter said that the phone number associated with Dorsey’s account was “compromised due to a security oversight by the mobile provider,” allowing a hacker to posts tweets to @jack by sending text messages.
###
Dorsey’s account has been secured and there was “no indication that Twitter’s systems have been compromised,” according to the San Francisco-based internet firm.
###
It appeared that tweets posted on Dorsey’s account by the hacker were up for about a half-hour before they were removed.
###
Pinned atop Dorsey’s account was a tweet from early last year saying: “We’re committing Twitter to help increase the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation, and to hold ourselves publicly accountable towards progress.”
###
A barrage of comments fired off on the platform questioned why the Twitter co-founder didn’t secure his account better, and how disturbing a sign it was that the service couldn’t keep its own chief safe on the platform.
###
“If you can’t protect Jack, you can’t protect… jack,” one Twitter user quipped.
###
The news comes with Dorsey and Twitter moving aggressively to clean up offensive and inappropriate content as part of a focus on “safety.”
###
“This might be the only way to get rid of racist tweets on this platform,” a Twitter user commented.
###
What happened?
###
British-based security consultant Graham Cluley said the incident highlighted the importance of two-factor authentication, where a user must confirm the account via an external service.
###
Cluley advised people to make sure they use two-factor authentication and check which applications are linked to their accounts.
###
“While it looks bad, it’s important to remember this is not some state-grade hack,” said R. David Edelman, director of technology, economy, and national security project at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
###
“It’s fundamentally an act of petty vandalism; the equivalent of spray painting a billboard above Twitter HQ.”
Click Here: Golf special###
Cybersecurity researcher Kevin Beaumont said the account appeared to have been hijacked “via a third party called Cloudhopper, which Twitter acquired about 10 years ago and had access to his account.”
###
Cloudhopper enables users to send tweets on their phones via SMS.
###
“While it’s tempting to laugh at the irony of it, the real-world consequences don’t make it funny,” University of Hartford communications professor Adam Chiara said of Dorsey’s account being hacked.
###
“Twitter can tell us that they are becoming more diligent with our privacy and security, but actions speak louder than words.”
###
The incident raised fresh concerns about how social media users – even prominent ones – can have their accounts compromised and used for misinformation, a point highlighted by Canadian member of parliament Michelle Rempel Garner.
###
“Between bots, trolls and abuse, I’ve been skeptical about @Twitter as a viable platform for some time now,” Rempel Garner wrote.
###
“But the fact it took the platform’s owner (@jack) about 30 min to get his hacked account under control is deeply problematic, and makes me worry as an elected official.”
###