Leave Louis alone.
Documentarian Louis Theroux was just one of the victims of a Twitter hack that’s aimed at highlighting security flaws in the popular social media site.
Messages appeared on several notable accounts with the words: “This account is now under the control of INSINIA SECURITY. Luckily, this has been H4CK3D to highlight an important vulnerability.”
The hackers said that they pursued this nefarious activity in a bid to highlight a weakness in how Twitter secures accounts using phone numbers.
The message that’s posted adds: “The user of this account has not lost access to it, no data compromised and is not under attack.”
In a blog post, the hackers wrote that the vulnerability of Twitter could help “spread fake news and disinformation via influential celebrities and journalists” and “send direct messages to trusted contacts in the victims network to socially engineer people into clicking links that will install advanced malware to remotely control devices and monitor the users.”
It added that: “Twitter should completely remove this functionality as users rely on their phone added to account for two-factor authentication”.
Speaking with the UK Independent, Mike Godfrey, the CEO of Insinia Security, confirmed the reason behind the hacking, explaining: “Insinia have warned for years that using text messaging for authentication, interaction or security is totally unacceptable and leaves people vulnerable to attack.”
Eamonn Holmes and other journalists have also had their accounts hacked.
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