The Twitter account of John McAfee was temporarily hacked on Wednesday. The account is now in the hands of the security expert himself.
McAfee’s account was used after the hack to promote lesser-known cryptocurrency. “Although I am a security expert, I have no control over the security of Twitter,” McAfee said on Twitter. In their own words, the social medium has been informed of the attack.
Opposite the BBC, Twitter refused to respond but did bring his advice about security to the attention. The social network has two-step verification, where a user has to enter a code sent to a mobile phone in addition to his password. This way hacking must be prevented.
Phone hacked
McAfee, however, claims that his mobile phone is probably also hacked. He says he has activated the two-step verification but thinks the hacker intercepted the code. McAfee said he was on a boat at that time and could not reach his provider – AT & T – to solve the problem.
“The only thing the hacker has done is to take over my Twitter account and it could have been much worse,” said the security expert. He has now removed the two-step verification of all his accounts as a precautionary measure. The messages that the hacker would have posted have been deleted.
Security company
McAfee is best known as the founder of security company McAfee. In 2016 he was also a presidential candidate for the American Libertarian Party. Nowadays he is working on what he calls the “best against hacking the protected phone in the world.”