 |
| The White House denies hacking Trump's Twitter account |
A security researcher said he hacked into the President (Donald Trump's) Twitter account earlier this month and believed his password was "maga2020!"
The Dutch newspaper "De Volkskrant" and "Frij Niederland" had previously reported the news to an interview with researcher Victor Jeffers.
Twitter and the White House vehemently denied the allegation. Twitter spokesperson Ian Plunkett said: We have no evidence to support this claim.
He added: We have taken active security measures against some of the prominent Twitter accounts related to the US elections, including with departments of the federal government.
White House deputy press secretary Judd Deer denied the news. He said: This is completely wrong and we do not comment on the security measures related to the president's account on social media.
Frig Nederland reported last month that Jeffers and two other hackers had successfully hacked into Trump's Twitter account in October 2016.
According to his new report, Jeffers decided to use the old password to run a new security test in 2020.
The original "yrefired" password did not work, but Jeffers found that Trump did not enable two-factor authentication, and suspected a number of other passwords, and was able to access it after five attempts.
Twitter did not disclose the security measures in place for Trump's account. After hacking into several well-known accounts, the company required strong passwords and encouraged two-factor authentication in September.
Frigg Nederland also reported that Jeffers was behind a strange tweet that Trump sent on October 16.
Trump has previously admitted to hijacking a hacker of his Twitter account in 2013.
Jeffers, a security expert, co-founder of the nonprofit GDI and director of the Netherlands Institute for Vulnerability Assessment, said he tried several times to contact Trump about the vulnerability.
De Volkskrant reports that CIA in the Netherlands contacted Jeffers and took the report seriously.
Jeffers made it clear that he had not made any changes to Trump's account; Because it is unethical and has nothing to do with responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities.