If Facebook CEO can be hacked, so can you, as details of 117 million LinkedIn users are advertised online for sale

(quote)

2016/06/06 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hacked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts were allegedly hacked Sunday by a group believed to be from Saudi Arabia as a demonstration of the vulnerability of social media accounts, even for top tech leaders. Embarrassing security lapses are nothing new for Zuckerberg. He was hacked in 2013 by an unemployed Palestinian, Khalil Shreateh. The group claims that it hacked two of Zuckerberg’s social media accounts, supposedly to alert the Facebook founder to a security weakness by tweeting to Zuckerberg:
"@finkd, we got access to your Twitter & Instagram & Pinterest, we are just testing your security, please dm [directly message] us. "

Zuckerberg responded less than an hour later, telling the “skids” to leave him alone. But six minutes later, a tweet on Zuckerberg’s account revealed a password that OurMine claims to have acquired in last month’s database leak at LinkedIn.

NYtimes 2016/06/07 chief lesson to be learned There are several lessons to be learned from a data breach in which hackers gained access to Mark Zuckerberg’s social media accounts, but chief among them is probably this: Quit using the same password for multiple websites. It may be annoying and time-consuming, but following this simple rule can help you avoid the public pwning, or account takeover, that befell Mr. Zuckerberg, the billionaire owner of Facebook and Instagram.

NYdailynews taunting message The group claiming responsibility for the high-profile hacking left a taunting message on both social media accounts.
"Hey @finkd, you were in Linkedin Database with the password ‘dadada’ !" the team wrote from Zuckerberg’s Twitter page.

The Guardian 2016/jun/06 defacing the pages The Facebook founder briefly lost control of both his Twitter and Pinterest accounts this morning, after a hacker broke in to both, defacing the pages. If the hacker, who went by the name OurMine, is to be believed, Zuckerberg’s weakness was in re-using passwords: they say they found his details in a database of 117 million passwords hacked from social network LinkedIn.

The Guardian 18May2016 advertised for sale: details of 117 million LinkedIn users Hacker advertises details of 117 million LinkedIn users on darknet. List of user IDs and passwords, allegedly sourced from cyber-attack in 2012, put on sale for around £1,500

LA Times 2016May18 117 million LinkedIn user passwords exposed LinkedIn says a 2012 breach resulted in more than 100 million of its users' passwords being compromised - vastly more than previously thought. The business social network confirmed Wednesday a purported hacker's claim that 117 million passwords were stolen in the breach. It previously said 6.5 million user passwords were compromised. The Mountain View, Calif., company LinkedIn has 400 million members around the world.

(unquote)

Image courtesy Robert Galbraith / Reuters