The official Twitter account of Jack Dorsey, the CEO and co-founder of the social media platform, appeared to be hijacked Friday.
One of the first tweets sent from the hacked account was the N-word, and it was followed up by other crass tweets. Dorsey has more than 4.2 million followers. About five minutes after the tweets were posted, they had been taken down. However, the account was still live.
“We’re aware that @jack was compromised and investigating what happened,” Twitter’s communications team said in a statement. More than an hour after the hack, the social giant’s comms team noted, “The account is now secure, and there is no indication that Twitter’s systems have been compromised.”
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Twitter later said that, “The phone number associated with the account was compromised due to a security oversight by the mobile provider. This allowed an unauthorized person to compose and send tweets via text message from the phone number. That issue is now resolved.”
The following Wednesday, actor Chloe Grace Moretz’s account was also hacked and tweeted out what appeared to be a social security number, as well as several swear words. The same group that hacked Dorsey’s account took credit for Moretz’s hack. Twitter has confirmed the connection.
On Wednesday, Twitter said that it has turned off the ability to tweet via SMS or text message to protect users’ accounts. “We’re taking this step because of vulnerabilities that need to be addressed by mobile carriers and our reliance on having a linked phone number for two-factor authentication (we’re working on improving this),” the service wrote.
A number of high-profile stars and politicians have had their accounts hacked through the years. Twitter disclosed that it has 139 million daily users, as of the social giant’s second-quarter earnings report July 26.
Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams created Twitter, which launched in July 2006.
Aug. 30, 5:21 pm PST Updated with additional statement from Twitter.
Sept. 4, 3:18 pm PST Updated with Chloe Grace Moretz hack information.
