back to article JACK OF ALL TIRADES: Twitter boss loses account to cunning foul-mouthed pranksters

This week ended with a bang, thanks to some Twitter hackers. An (as yet) unknown group took over the account of Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey for several hours on Friday, filling the billionaire's feed with incoherent and occasionally profane rants. Jack Dorsey's hacked feed Twitter says it is investigating what …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Frying pan~Fire

    "the two groups were able to seize the command and control servers and replace it with a cleaning tool that removes the malware from the infected machines."

    So now the victims are infected with Avast?

    (Some days you just can't win)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Frying pan~Fire

      That's what I thought on first read of the article. However, on reading the Avast detailed descriptions it seems clear that in this case they were able to simply send a 'self-destruct' command which didn't require any extra software to be installed on the victim.

      1. BillG
        Angel

        Weasel Statements

        DDS Safe said: "At this time, we caution against making any notifications because, as set forth above, we simply do not know the scope of the attack. We do not want to inform patients that their information has been compromised if it has not been. Likewise, we do not want to make any assurances that no data was compromised as we may learn it has been."

        This reminds me of Zelazny's Agnostic's Prayer: "Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to ensure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving said benefit. I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony. Amen."

  2. macjules
    FAIL

    Is this the best you could do?

    According to security blogger Brian Krebs, the hackers may also be involved in a string of celebrity account takeovers conducted via SIM swapping tricks.

    Come on guys, you could at least have hijacked the unrealdonaldtrump twitter account and got creative? I shall cancel my Black Hat subscription forthwith.

    1. Richard Jones 1
      WTF?

      Re: Is this the best you could do?

      If they did, would anyone ever be able to tell the difference?

      1. R3sistance

        Re: Is this the best you could do?

        So are you saying we need to run a Turing test against the account to find out? If it passes, then the account has been compromised!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Facepalm

        Re: Is this the best you could do?

        The give away would be fewer spelling mistakes.

        I still think he is going for a dementia defence for when he is booted out of office.

        Nobody can be that stupid and not dribble/wet themselves in public.

        Unless of course; that isnt all waist, but in fact an adult nappy.

        As for the story, where is Nelson Muntz when you need him

    2. deadlockvictim

      Re: Is this the best you could do?

      Exactly. The Donald could admit that he is actually an abysmal businessman whose primary talent is to take a thriving enterprise (say, the United States of America) and run it into the ground so that he can only get by by flogging his services to dubious customers in countries with dubious records (say, in the former Soviet Union).

  3. Tree
    Happy

    Did the head Twat use a common PW?

    What was his password? monkey. HA, HA.

  4. Paratrooping Parrot
    Black Helicopters

    Twitter Hack

    At least the hacker didn't try it on Trump's twitter account. He would be hunted down like dogs and then sent off to Guantanamo Bay!

    1. raving angry loony

      Re: Twitter Hack

      If Trumps account started spouting racist and homophobic content... would anyone notice the difference? I mean, his supporters would be saying "YES! He speaks truth!", and his detractors would probably barely notice the added profanity. Not sure even Trump would be able to tell the difference.

      1. Jedit Silver badge
        Thumb Down

        Re: Twitter Hack

        I didn't notice the difference when Twitter Jack's account retweeted someone saying "Hitler did nothing wrong". He's already far right.

  5. DJV Silver badge

    DDS Safe

    Does that stand for Definitely Didn't Stay Safe?

  6. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    tweet via sms

    Tweet via sms requires going through a 3rd party? Funny since originally the whole reason for the tweet length limit was because you could have a feed sent to you via text, and send tweets via text.

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