All I want for Christmas is not getting my Twitter account hacked but here we are – at least for Mariah Carey. Her Twitter account got hacked on New Year’s Eve with the account tweeting lewd and racist tweets including sexual comments about Eminem even mentioning the N-word. Carey’s account which has 21.4 million followers posted more than 50 tweets.
The hacked account was also asking her followers to follow specific handles to be followed right back.
The account referred to the Chuckiling Squad which is a hacker group that was responsible for hacking Jack Dorsey’s Twitter account in 2019 plus other celebrities.
Hackers can access your Twitter account through SIM-swapping where they trick your service provider into giving them control of your phone number and then through two-factor authentication SMS codes, gain access to your account. This was how hackers got access to the Twitter CEO’s account.
It is unknown if this method was used in Mariah’s case.
It’s high time to switch to better 2FA methods such as using Authenticator Apps.
Twitter now offers 2FA and you can enable it without using a phone number by switching to authenticator apps which we highly recommend and here's why:https://t.co/Xr5FMWvz5M
It's strange that their own CEO had to be hacked for this to happen https://t.co/vydGaQ4uN3 pic.twitter.com/28VzU3h5uJ
— Techweez (@techweez) November 25, 2019
The tweets have since been deleted.
I take a freaking nap and this happens?
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) January 1, 2020
“As soon as we were made aware of the issue, we locked the compromised account and are currently investigating the situation,” a Twitter spokesperson told THR.
