It is not everyday that you can hack into the Twitter account of the US president and manage to get away with it. Victor Gevers, an ethical hacker from the Netherlands, is so far the only one who can claim so.
On October 16, Gevers managed to successfully log in to Donald Trump's Twitter account by guessing his password - "MAGA2020!" For those unaware, MAGA stands for ¡®Make America Great Again¡¯, Trump¡¯s campaign slogan for the US presidential elections.
A well respected cyber-security researcher, Gevers had been conducting a security check on the Twitter accounts of high-profile US election candidates when he managed to guess Trump's password. He then shared screenshots of the inside of Trump's account on 22 October with the US authorities, along with his findings on the matter.
Following the ¡°hack¡±, Gevers faced prosecution back home for the hacking, which has now confirmed his deed. The prosecutors found that Gevers did successfully log in to Donald Trump's Twitter account but could not charge him as it was considered to be an ethical hacking.
"The hacker released the login himself,¡± Dutch police said, as quoted in a report by BBC. "He later stated to police that he had investigated the strength of the password because there were major interests involved if this Twitter account could be taken over so shortly before the presidential election."
This is not the first time that Gevers has managed to log in to Trump's Twitter account. The cyber-security researcher did so in 2016 as well, using a password - "yourefired" - which was, mind you, already leaked from another of Trump¡¯s social-network accounts in a previous data breach.
Nevertheless, Gevers succeeded in his endeavour - to highlight how easy it is to guess made up, vulnerable passwords. The incident is a stark reminder of how a strong password and other security measures are a must in the digital world today.
People around the world have been known to employ ignorant passwords for their digital accounts. A recent list of the worst passwords in 2020 stands as a testimony to that. The list highlights how easy it is for a hacker to guess these passwords and attempt them on the account - taking as little as 0.0 seconds in some cases.
It is hence important that you use a strong password to protect your digital presence from invaders. The ideal way is to use capital and small letters, numbers and characters in a mix and maintain the length of the password to be at least eight to ten characters. And of course, do not make them obvious, like ¡°MAGA2020!¡±
Even if you place a great password, there can still be a risk of someone happening to come across the password by chance. In such cases, using a two-factor authentication as a security measure for your account can be a huge check.
Two-factor authentications ask for two or more pieces of evidence successively, usually in the form of a password and an OTP. With two-factor authentications, a login is not successful until and unless both the proofs are presented or a trigger response is activated through a pre-selected device, usually stating ¡°Yes, that was me¡±.
So make sure you use these security features to keep your online presence intact and keep the notorious elements at bay.?