Mark Zuckerberg Gets Social Media Accounts Back After Hack
Image by getty images
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter and Pinterest accounts have been resecured, a spokesman from the social media platform said on Monday, responding to questions about weekend media reports that the founder’s sites had been hacked.
Zuckerberg’s Twitter and Pinterest accounts were compromised over the weekend, according to a report on Sunday from technology news website VentureBeat.
Those accounts have since been “re-secured using best practices,” a Facebook spokesman told Reuters, adding, “no Facebook systems or accounts were accessed.”
Zuckerberg’s Twitter account, @finkd, last used in January 2012, posted a tweet on Sunday with the message, “Hey, @finkd You were in Linkedin Datatbase with the password ‘dadada’ ! DM (direct message) for proof,” according to a screenshot posted to Twitter by Ben Hall (@Ben_Hall), founder of Katacoda, an interactive learning platform for software developers.
The tweet appeared to ask Zuckerberg to contact the sender, who claimed to have accessed his account.
Zuckerberg’s Pinterest page, meanwhile, was defaced with the headline “Hacked By OurMine Team” according to a screengrab of the page posted by VentureBeat.
“Hey , we are just testing your security ,please dm (direct message) us for contact! twitter: https://twitter.com/OurMine, ” the compromised page said in a message that seemingly identified the hackers as being associated with the linked Twitter account.
The Twitter page associated with that account, @OurMine, has since been suspended.
Pinterest did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“A number of other online services have seen millions of passwords stolen in the past several weeks,” a Twitter spokesperson said. “We recommend people use a unique, strong password for Twitter.”
The nature of the tweet sent from Zuckerberg’s account on Sunday suggested the alleged hackers may have gained access to the account by using the same password associated with his LinkedIn profile.
“We’ve invalidated all accounts believed to be at risk here,” a LinkedIn spokesperson said.
Last month, LinkedIn acknowledged that a 2012 data theft may have affected far more users than originally thought.
The professional networking site said on May 18 that it was working to invalidate the passwords of some 100 million accounts after it “became aware of an additional set of data that had just been released that claims to be email and hashed password combinations of more than 100 million LinkedIn members from that same theft in 2012.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
