Dick Costolo’s Twitter Inc Account Hacked

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Former Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo’s account was hacked on Sunday, according to Re/code. The account was compromised by the same group that hacked the account of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. According to the report, tweets from a hacking group called OurMine appeared in the feed of Twitter’s former CEO.

Costolo’s account not hacked directly

OurMine is the group that hacked Zuckerberg’s Twitter and a Pinterest accounts, and it looks like it is behind the recent hack of Costolo’s Twitter account also. So it could give some consolation to the Facebook CEO that he is not the only dignitary whose account was hacked.

Costolo’s account was not hacked directly. According to Re/code, a third-party service that cross-posted to Costolo’s Twitter account was hacked instead, and this service was used by hackers to post to Costolo’s feed.

Costolo tweeted, “Looks like an old account from another service that cross posted to Twitter was compromised, not my Twitter acct. I’m on it. Thanks everyone.”

The group OurMine, which is based in Saudi Arabia, claims to be on a mission to teach people to better secure their accounts, and this group has hacked the social media accounts of several high-profile targets. According to screenshots of previous tweets from OurMine, the group hacks accounts to serve as a security check and teach people to secure their account more safely. The tweets have since been deleted, and the account OurMine has been suspended.

OurMine hacks only to warn of security

The Zuckerberg hack disclosed that his password was dadada.” OurMine also compromised the Twitter account of EDM artist David Guetta and Evan Williams, another former Twitter CEO and one of the co-founders.

The group posts tweets requesting a DM contact after the attack and advises readers not to worry as the tweet is just a security check. Similar to Costolo’s hack, Williams hack also involved a third-party service that cross-posted to Twitter. For Williams, the service was Foursquare, while in the case of Costolo, the name of the service is still unknown.

Separately, Rosario Dawson’s account has also been hacked. The Daredevil actress’ Twitter account was hacked by a person named Minda Jankowski, who posted two provocative photos of a posterior. The photos were fitted between tweets about Bernie Sanders, for whom Dawson has stumped.

On Monday, Twitter shares closed up 1.49% at $16.34. Year to date, the stock is down by over 26%, while in the last year, it is down by over 54%.

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