OurMine Hacks Facebook’s Social Media Accounts
The hacker group OurMine, known for regularly breaching the accounts of various celebrities and major companies, has once again made headlines. The group claims to be white-hat hackers, stating that their actions are meant to draw public attention to security issues.
According to ZDNet, this time the group targeted the official social media accounts of Facebook. Over the past weekend, the following profiles were compromised:
- Facebook’s Twitter account (source)
- Facebook’s Instagram account (source)
- Facebook Messenger’s Twitter account (source)
- Facebook Messenger’s Instagram account (source)
Control over all affected accounts has since been restored, and all traces of the defacement have been removed.
Previous Attacks Before the Super Bowl
Just last week, ahead of the Super Bowl, OurMine also compromised the Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts of the National Football League (NFL), 15 NFL teams, and the sports channel ESPN. The timing was likely intentional, as the hackers sought to boost their reputation and attract media attention right before the major event.
Many noticed that the tweets posted by the hackers on behalf of their victims were published using the Khoros app, a tool often used by marketing and PR departments. According to screenshots shared by users, the messages posted on Facebook’s Twitter accounts were also sent via Khoros.
Khoros Responds to Security Concerns
Representatives from Khoros have assured the media that their platform was not compromised. This was confirmed by NFL representatives, who added that their investigation found targeted attacks on specific social media accounts rather than a breach of the Khoros platform itself.
Other High-Profile Victims of OurMine
OurMine has previously targeted a number of high-profile individuals, including:
- Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO – Pinterest and Twitter accounts hacked)
- Dick Costolo (former Twitter CEO – Pinterest and Twitter accounts hacked)
- Sundar Pichai (Google CEO – Quora account hacked, with hacker messages cross-posted to Twitter)
- Ev Williams (co-founder of Twitter, Blogger, and Medium – Twitter account hacked)
- Daniel Ek (Spotify CEO – Twitter account hacked)
- Brendan Iribe (Oculus Rift CEO – Twitter account hacked)
- Other celebrities such as YouTuber PewDiePie and Hollywood actor Channing Tatum
The group has also hacked and defaced websites and social media pages of many well-known companies, organizations, and media outlets, including WikiLeaks, TechCrunch, BuzzFeed, BBC, CNN, Netflix, Marvel Studios, PlayStation Network, and many others.