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Hackers Got A Hold Of Niantic CEO John Hanke's Twitter Account
It looks like hackers have been posting to Niantic CEO John Hanke's Twitter account today. His account has been posting "This hack is for Brazil" and "His password was too easy." Each tweet is using the #OurMine hashtag, which likely means that the OurMine Hacker group is behind the attack.
It looks as though each tweet was written externally via Quora, and set to auto-post to Twitter. Messages that reference Brazil are likely related to the fact that Pokémon Go has not yet released in the region.
#OurMine | This hack for Brazil #POKEMONGOBRAZIL #PokemonGo4Brazil !? https://t.co/j2Ia8hnYhK
— John Hanke (@johnhanke) July 31, 2016
OurMine Team !? https://t.co/O0JEniKByo
— John Hanke (@johnhanke) July 31, 2016
OurMine is a hacker group that targets high profile CEOs and celebrities. They've previously and successfully targeted YouTuber Markiplier and Mark Zuckerberg's social media accounts. Twitter hacks are not uncommon. Earlier this year, developer Peter Molyneux's Twitter was breached, posting fake messages about retirement.
We've reached out to Niantic for comment, and we will update as soon as we hear back.
[Source: Twitter]
Our Take
If the messages are true that the hack was "for Brazil," I'd like to stress that hacking someone's account is never a viable solution to getting what you want. It looks like the hacker group gained access to his Twitter externally via Quora, which means his Twitter account itself and personal information attached to it is hopefully safe.
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