Trump's Twitter account hacked after Dutch researcher guessed password? • Hacker News Board

Re: Trump's Twitter account hacked after Dutch researcher guessed password?

#91

Post by TwoBit » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 8:15 PM UTC

DLay wrote: post #33

Twitter spokesperson Ian Plunkett: “We’ve seen no evidence to corroborate this claim, including from the article published in the Netherlands today. We proactively implemented account security measures for a designated group of high-profile, election-related Twitter accounts in the United States, including federal branches of government.” https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/22/dutch-hacker-trump-twitter...

This doesn't make sense to me. Twitter has the IP addresses of all logins, so they absolutely know whether this happened or not. "we've seen no evidence..." is a senseless thing to say and implies they are being evasive about something.

Re: Trump's Twitter account hacked after Dutch researcher guessed password?

#92

Post by TwoBit » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 8:18 PM UTC

What if somebody logged in from a public computer while disguised and with no phone on themselves to trace etc and messed with Trump's account? Could he be identified by any means?

Re: Trump's Twitter account hacked after Dutch researcher guessed password?

#93

Post by codysan » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 8:22 PM UTC

s9w wrote: post #86

Completely made up. Three submissions, ~50, ~100 and ~150 points in HN. Everyone having a laugh, no one cares for site rules. No moderation in sight. Everyone knows it's fake, no one cares. Rinse and repeat about three times a day over four years. Some of them make it into HN, each one makes in into the minds of thousands. But dare to defend truth and the cavalry is there in seconds.

Pretty bold statement coming from someone with a post history as dubious as yours. There's actually some healthy skepticism in this thread and rational conjecture, which I assume you won't be taking part in.

Re: Trump's Twitter account hacked after Dutch researcher guessed password?

#94

Post by class4behavior » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 8:26 PM UTC

TwoBit wrote: post #91

DLay wrote: post #33

Twitter spokesperson Ian Plunkett: “We’ve seen no evidence to corroborate this claim, including from the article published in the Netherlands today. We proactively implemented account security measures for a designated group of high-profile, election-related Twitter accounts in the United States, including federal branches of government.” https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/22/dutch-hacker-trump-twitter...

This doesn't make sense to me. Twitter has the IP addresses of all logins, so they absolutely know whether this happened or not. "we've seen no evidence..." is a senseless thing to say and implies they are being evasive about something.

You're the one not making sense. "We've seen no evidence..." clearly implies they haven't logged any successful login after multiple attempts from a foreign IP or the Netherlands specifically as described, plus their other measures weren't triggered either.

Re: Trump's Twitter account hacked after Dutch researcher guessed password?

#95

Post by the137 » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 8:30 PM UTC

altmind wrote: post #83

As the "great hack" is destroying my trust in bloomberg, this article is destroying my trust in the guardian. There's no chance the password was "maga2020!"

I wouldn't have trusted bloomberg either way, but the guardian deserves respect. There was a spectacular chance that his password was maga2020

I'll never understand how some of the brightest minds of our generation can end up following this guy. I understand we're seeing confirmation bias => brainwashing en mass, but people on this site should be smart enough to break out of the cycle

Re: Trump's Twitter account hacked after Dutch researcher guessed password?

#96

Post by buzzwordninja » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 8:34 PM UTC

raziel2p wrote: post #64

icpmacdo wrote: post #25

I honestly find it difficult to believe his password was maga2020!

why do you find it difficult?

It's like having 12345 as the code on your luggage.

Re: Trump's Twitter account hacked after Dutch researcher guessed password?

#97

Post by s9w » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:12 PM UTC

codysan wrote: post #93

s9w wrote: post #86

Completely made up. Three submissions, ~50, ~100 and ~150 points in HN. Everyone having a laugh, no one cares for site rules. No moderation in sight. Everyone knows it's fake, no one cares. Rinse and repeat about three times a day over four years. Some of them make it into HN, each one makes in into the minds of thousands. But dare to defend truth and the cavalry is there in seconds.

Pretty bold statement coming from someone with a post history as dubious as yours. There's actually some healthy skepticism in this thread and rational conjecture, which I assume you won't be taking part in.

I would be banned for saying that. But go ahead, shots are free against the right people.

Re: Trump's Twitter account hacked after Dutch researcher guessed password?

#98

Post by IvyMike » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:29 PM UTC

nrmitchi wrote: post #34

The Trump-tie aside, does anyone have a good reason why 2FA isn't absolutely enforced on all verified accounts? I can't really see a situation where the need for "authenticity" of a person/account meets the bar for needing verification, but not be considered important enough for basic security practices.

I've seen several verified accounts say that 2FA was required when they got the verification, but apparently they still have the option to disable it later.

https://twitter.com/mattblaze/status/1319295891765972992

Re: Trump's Twitter account hacked after Dutch researcher guessed password?

#99

Post by thisiswater » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:47 PM UTC

Dig1t wrote: post #63

darepublic wrote: post #30

The password format is surely the most common password pattern that everyone seems to have independently adopted

Actually this is interesting, I did this myself growing up. But I seem to remember that it arose because of slowly changing password requirements. Like I remember having a password in my teens for Myspace and other web services, and one day when signing up for a new service I was prompted with "your password must contain at least one number". So I just took the same old password and put a number on the end of it. The…

My intuition also.

I can practically date my old passwords (for unimportant things) by this, and/or how many times I forgot it and had to set a new, unique password.

Re: Trump's Twitter account hacked after Dutch researcher guessed password?

#100

Post by henryfjordan » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:54 PM UTC

flog wrote: post #15

Isn't this enough of a crime for some prison time? Is there some exception for registered researchers or something?

If all you intend to do is get in, nothing else, then it is probably not a crime. The CFAA prohibits "knowingly and with intent to defraud, accesses a protected computer without authorization". There's also a clause about not accessing govt computers (but this was Twitter's server) and not forwarding any secrets you find.

All this guy did was get in and then called the authorities, so he probably didn't 'intend to defraud'. If he tweeted something, which he alludes to in some articles, that might be a felony.

IANAL, get a lawyer if you are into hacking