The wave of hacking on Twitter does not dry up. After many Quebec journalists, Guy A. Lepage’s turn to be deprived of his Twitter account thanks to a fraudster.
At the end of the line, the facilitator punctuates his anger with a few swear words. “It’s really a shitty company,” he sums up bluntly. Since Friday, the most followed personality in Quebec on Twitter no longer has access to its 483,000 subscribers.
Worse still, since Monday morning, a hacker has been using his name, and especially his “blue authentication hook”, to falsely sell 10 autographed MacBook computers for $550, including delivery.
“I am angry, but above all I am extremely sorry for the people who are going to get caught up in this shenanigans,” explains Guy A. Lepage. Internet users will necessarily fall into the trap, he believes.
The impersonation of Guy A. Lepage’s account comes after many Canadian journalists have also suffered identity theft on Twitter in recent days.
Almost 72 hours after reporting the takeover of his account, Guy A. Lepage still cannot believe the “incompetence” of the blue bird. “There must have been a 10-minute game between the moment my account was hacked and my denunciation to Twitter on Friday at the end of the day. »
Rough answer from customer service: “We’ll get back to you in a few days. »
Guy A. Lepage does not remember having made a maneuver – for example clicking on a link – which could have led to piracy.
Create confusion
For his part, Aaron Derfel, investigative journalist for the daily Montreal Gazette behind the CHSLD Herron scandal, remembers very well the action that led to the theft of his Twitter account on Thursday. By private message, a “representative” of the platform announced to the reporter that he would lose his authentication after having “violated the rules of the community”.
IMAGE FROM A SCREENSHOT
A link supposedly led to a form to challenge the decision. A simple click and the hacker took possession of @Aaron_Derfel. “Recently, Elon Musk talked a lot about fraudulent accounts, the sale of blue hooks, the elimination of robots, notes the journalist. When I received the message, I thought: OK, it follows the line of Elon Musk. I think the hackers are exploiting the confusion he has caused. »
Mr. Derfel was soon to receive this ransom message on his iPhone: “hi aaron, I want to sell you your twitter account”. The hacker also sent tons of private messages among the journalist’s 31,000 subscribers, in order to phish them in turn. Mr. Derfel’s complaints to Twitter last Thursday went unheeded.
Through him or not, the account of his colleague from Montreal Gazette, Bill Brownstein, as well as those of journalists Hannah Thibedeau, of CBC News, and Catherine Gauthier, of Radio-Canada, also fell into the hands of hackers. “I apologize to all the people who follow me if their account has been hacked because of me,” said Mr. Derfel.
Like other media personalities, the journalist, (re)known for his Twitter threads on the COVID-19 pandemic, was able to find his avatar on Monday. In the meantime, he had opened a new temporary account. “The irony is that after being hacked, the real me didn’t have a blue checkmark, and the fake me did,” notes the one who quickly tightened his security settings.
Lack of resources ?
In early November, the contractor behind SpaceX and Tesla fired about half of Twitter employees worldwide. “There was hacking before, notes Mr. Derfel, but I think the fact that Elon Musk made layoffs makes the platform much less secure. »
According to the journalist of Montreal Gazette, Twitter and its leaders face legal action. “With a site of a certain age that involves several coders, the handover can be tricky,” notes Nadia Seraiocco, lecturer at UQAM’s School of Media. “We are in a bit of a perfect storm in terms of security, with positions that have not been filled. »
According to the digital identity specialist, the recent series of hacks could be linked to the leaking of personal data of some 5.4 million Twitter users. This data was allegedly stolen in December 2021 due to a security breach, according to the Bleeping Computer site, but it was only released for free on a hacker forum at the end of last November.
Mme Seraiocco suggests that Twitter users change their password to multi-factor authentication.
Is Guy A. Lepage, powerless, afraid of forever giving up his imposing network of subscribers, which makes many jealous? Small silence: “Honestly, I don’t give a damn. I am completely disillusioned with Twitter. Not for the interesting people I’ve been around for 10 years, but for the kind of propaganda, for the threats – I’ve had a lot of people arrested. I am extremely poorly served, extremely disappointed with the service of this company. »
Whether or not he finds his crown, the king of Twitter in Quebec risks being more discreet, if not quiet. “When I lose trust in an institution, it is very hard to regain. I’m not fine on this. »