UPDATE: This blog post has been updated to reflect further developments.
A hacking group called Ayyildiz Tim from Turkey is raising their profile and they are wreacking havoc in the NGO, Gov't and Media world. With successful breaches of the head of the World Economic Forum, and Indian Ambassador and 2 top hosts at Fox News the group was able to cause immediate damage.
@McAfee_Labs with support from Social SafeGuard has released a research update.
What we know:
- The brand equity and image of two top brands was damaged
- The hackers had full account access including direct messages (to and from) for each account
- The hackers were able to successfully other political figures
What's We Can Assume:
- - Any DM, particularly one with a confidential source is likely to leak in the coming days, including the existence of a source
- - The accounts were used as a platform to engage in additional account takeovers (ATO), of concern since the two Fox hosts (@Greta Van Susteren and @EricBolling) were both 1 of the fewer than 50 accounts followed by the President.
- - There are other accounts in both organizations that were compromised.
The fact that two different professionals in the same company were compromised suggests the exploit came in through email and hoped to social.
Information Security professionals can protect against this exposure by securing the accounts (posts and profiles) of high profile executives in their organization. Contact us today to learn more.