Mark Zuckerberg’s Social Accounts Hacked

Mark Zuckerberg’s Social Accounts Hacked

Even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is not safe from cyber attackers.

Zuckerberg’s Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest profiles were briefly hacked over the weekend. His Facebook and Instagram accounts were not involved, Facebook officials said.

A group calling itself OurMine Team said it attacked the three accounts on Sunday, according to the website TechCrunch. The accounts were quickly restored.

Twitter says a Twitter account used by the hackers to post messages was suspended. A website called Engadget captured messages posted by the hackers to Zuckerberg’s personal Twitter account.

“We are just testing your security,” said one message posted by the hackers to the billionaire’s Twitter profile. Zuckerberg had not posted anything to his Twitter account since 2012.

Business networking site LinkedIn confirmed Monday that the Facebook founder’s data was compromised, The New York Times reported. The company said the hackers attempted to create a false profile for Zuckerberg.

“We were alerted of this takeover attempt and have taken action to remove the false profile on LinkedIn,” said a statement, the newspaper reported.

The hackers also posted what they claimed was the password used for Zuckerberg’s LinkedIn account.

But LinkedIn did not say if the attacks on Zuckerberg’s social media accounts were part of a large data breach at the company in 2012. That leak, of emails and passwords, affected more than 100 million LinkedIn accounts.

Internet security experts suggest that users change their passwords often to keep accounts safe. They also warn users not to use the same passwords for different social media accounts.

I’m Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for Learning English. Additional information came from Associated Press, the New York Times, TechCrunch and Engadget. George Grow was the editor.

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Words in This Story

cyber – adj. relating to computers or the internet

hack – v. gain access to a computer or network illegally

restore – v. bring something back

mogul – n. an important, successful person

networking – v. interacting with other people to exchange information and develop contacts

password – n. a secret work needed to gain access to something

breach – n. violation of a law or standard