Hackers have a special interest in hacking social media accounts of celebrities, public figures, and renowned brands. Every time an account is hacked, social media platforms give us lecture over how we should be careful with our accounts but what if the social media accounts of those very same social media platforms end up being hacked? Well, there's no scope left for a "what if" scenario as several of Facebook's Twitter and Instagram accounts were hijacked on Friday.
A group calling itself OurMine made multiple posts on Facebook's Twitter account on Friday advertising the security lapses on Twitter and Facebook's end. The hacking collective also hijacked Facebook and Messenger accounts on Instagram and posted a photo of OurMine's logo.
"Hi, we are O u r M i n e. Well, even Facebook is hackable but at least their security better than Twitter," the official Twitter account of Facebook on Friday sent out a tweet. The same message was posted via Messenger's Twitter account as well.
Who is OurMine?
OurMine group has been linked to other Twitter hacks in the past. The most recent instance was the hacking of more than a dozen of National Football League teams. The same group also took credit for the hacking of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's account in 2016. Every time OurMine hacks an account, it markets its security services.
Accounts restored
In a statement, Twitter said that the hijacking happened through a third-party platform. "Confirming the account was hacked through a third-party platform. As soon as we were made aware of the issue, we locked the compromised account and are working closely with our partners at Facebook to restore them."
After the Twitter account of Facebook was restored, it tweeted, "Some of our corporate social accounts were briefly hacked but we have secured and restored access."
OurMine also appeared to have hacked the official Instagram accounts of Facebook and Messenger. The Verge reported that OurMine did not actually hack Facebook or Twitter but used a third-party service called Khoros to send the hijacked tweets. It said that Khoros can also publish posts on Instagram and was also used to publish tweets from hacked NFL accounts.
