December 18, 2020, 2:39 pm
Many were suspicious when a Dutch hacker claimed to have guessed Donald Trump’s Twitter password back in October, thinking that surely he didn’t really guess it after five tries and then politely tried to notify the Secret Service that he needed a better one. However, according to The Guardian, public prosecutors in the Netherlands have confirmed that yes, that is actually what happened.
Advertisement
Hide
Trump’s password prior to October 16 was indeed “maga2020!” That wasn’t the first time that Victor Gevers accessed the account of the 45th President of the United States, either.
Advertisement
Hide
Gevers was apparently investigated but will not face charges due to the fact that he reported his actions immediately with the intent of alerting the administration that they had a serious security problem on their hands.
“We believe the hacker has actually penetrated Trump’s Twitter account, but has met the criteria that have been developed in case law to go free as an ethical hacker,” said the prosecutor’s office known as Openbaar Ministerie.
Advertisement
Hide
Gevers was also interviewed by Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant shortly after guessing the second password to express how alarmed he was by how little effort it took.
“I expected to be blocked after four failed attempts,” he said. “Or at least would be asked to provide additional information.”
Twitter adamantly denied the claims made by Gevers, saying that they found “no evidence” of the hack and that they had “proactively implemented account security measures” for the accounts of important politicians. Gevers, however, reported that the Secret Service contacted and thanked him for exposing the security flaw.
Plus, this wasn’t the first time he or anyone else had guessed one of Trump’s Twitter passwords. Back in 2016, he and at least two other people figured out that it was “yourefired” after the outgoing president’s famous reality show catch phrase.
Advertisement
Hide
With this news confirmed by the Dutch government, people have quickly linked this security failure to the news that Russia had hacked into multiple U.S. agencies including parts of the Pentagon and had access to them for months.
“Really hard to understand how we could have a massive cybersecurity failure, leading to a dangerous Russian penetration of our government, with this president in charge,” CNN analyst Max Boot tweeted with a link to the password story.
*First Published: December 18, 2020, 2:39 pm
0 Comments