Hacker Infiltrates Oculus CEO’s Twitter Account, Declares Himself New Boss
For a brief moment, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe experienced a far less threatening version of what Captain Phillips went through when a Somalian pirate commandeered his ship and declared, "I'm the captain now." But instead of guns and a boat, Iribe seemingly lost control of his company when a hacker took control of his Twitter account and used it to announce a new boss.
"We here at Oculus are very excited to announce our new CEO, @Lid!," the Twitter post declared, followed by a smiling emoticon. To keep the ruse going, @Lid stated on his own Twitter account, "Lol just became CEO of this sh*t company, Oculus," with several emoji added because, well, that's how this generation communicates with one another.
It was pretty easy to figure out that something was amiss. While it's not inconceivable to announce a new CEO on Twitter, it's unlikely for a company as large as Oculus and owned by Facebook. And the followup post berating the firm by the supposed new CEO, while humorous, is not something an incoming boss would declare right off the bat.
Hacking into Twitter and other social media accounts that belong to prominent CEOs seems to be a trend. It's happened to several high profile figures in recent times, including Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook co-founder and CEO), Sundar Pichai (Google CEO), Dick Costolo (former Twitter CEO), and Travis Kalanick (Uber co-founder). Now Iribe joins the growing list.
In this instance, the hacker was simply having a laugh at Iribe's expense. He told TechCrunch that he gained access to Iribe's account by sifting through data from the recent MySpace security breach and that it weren't for two-factor authentication he would have been able to access Iribe's email as well.
"Imagine creating the coolest sh*t to ever be introduced to gaming and technology but the same pass[word] for 4 years lol... Silly Mr. CEO!," the hacker tweeted from Iribe's account.
Iribe is back in possession of this Twitter account. Something tells us he'll be a little more careful with his accounts going forward.
"We here at Oculus are very excited to announce our new CEO, @Lid!," the Twitter post declared, followed by a smiling emoticon. To keep the ruse going, @Lid stated on his own Twitter account, "Lol just became CEO of this sh*t company, Oculus," with several emoji added because, well, that's how this generation communicates with one another.
It was pretty easy to figure out that something was amiss. While it's not inconceivable to announce a new CEO on Twitter, it's unlikely for a company as large as Oculus and owned by Facebook. And the followup post berating the firm by the supposed new CEO, while humorous, is not something an incoming boss would declare right off the bat.
Hacking into Twitter and other social media accounts that belong to prominent CEOs seems to be a trend. It's happened to several high profile figures in recent times, including Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook co-founder and CEO), Sundar Pichai (Google CEO), Dick Costolo (former Twitter CEO), and Travis Kalanick (Uber co-founder). Now Iribe joins the growing list.
In this instance, the hacker was simply having a laugh at Iribe's expense. He told TechCrunch that he gained access to Iribe's account by sifting through data from the recent MySpace security breach and that it weren't for two-factor authentication he would have been able to access Iribe's email as well.
"Imagine creating the coolest sh*t to ever be introduced to gaming and technology but the same pass[word] for 4 years lol... Silly Mr. CEO!," the hacker tweeted from Iribe's account.
Iribe is back in possession of this Twitter account. Something tells us he'll be a little more careful with his accounts going forward.
