Hacker group targets Mark Zuckerberg's online accounts — again
A hacking group has claimed credit for targeting Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's online accounts -- for the second time this year.
Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg (Image: CNET)
On Tuesday, a hacking group known as OurMine emailed me to say they had targeted Zuckerberg's Pinterest account, which was defaced with a new tagline and the group's web address.
His Pinterest bio temporarily said, "Don't worry, we are just testing your security."
By the time we published, the defacement had been removed.
But the group would not say, when asked, how it carried out the hack -- but it did say that it wasn't through leaked databases.
When pressed, the group said that it has "a exploit on Pinterest" but didn't say how. The last time it said that it had exploited a platform, it turned out to be a fake.
The group is best known for targeting high-profile users -- such as company bosses and tech executives -- and defacing their web accounts with their name and a contact address.
Their hope is that the victims reach out for security advice, which the group's website claims to provide.
The hackers also emailed me Zuckerberg's username, which is publicly known, and his password for his Twitter account, which we are not publishing for obvious reasons. The group said that the Facebook chief had enabled two-factor authentication after the first instance of the group taking over his account.
The phone number associated with the account ended in "86", according to the hackers.
The hackers also said that the current Twitter password was Zuckerberg's former personal Gmail password, which was changed six months ago.
Of course, we can't verify these details are correct without violating hacking laws. (You can read more about how we verify data breaches and hacks here.)
Zuckerberg isn't alone in being targeted by the same group. Its hackers have in recent months also claimed Google's Sundar Pichai and Uber founder Travis Kalanick.
We've reached out to Zuckerberg directly to confirm and for a comment, but we didn't hear back at the time of writing.