Say what you will about Donald Trump (and I daresay you might have a lot to talk about on that subject), but it’s hard to deny that since his Presidency began in 2016, he hasn’t been shy about making his thoughts known on Twitter. – Following a report via Gizmodo, however, a security researcher who was under investigation for ‘hacking’ Donald Trump’s account has basically been let off after he disclosed that the password was so bad, it was almost too easy!
Donald Trump Twitter Meltdown!
Victor Gevers, a security researcher from the Netherlands, was currently under investigation from judges within the country as it was confirmed he was part of a group of three who had successfully breached the security of Donald Trump’s Twitter account. Carrying a strong reputation as an ‘ethical hacker’, however, he revealed that having taken a few wild swings at logging into Donald Trump’s Twitter account, he correctly picked the password within just 5 guesses! – More so though, he couldn’t believe how obvious and easy it was!
So, want to take a minute to try and have a guess yourself? – I won’t spoil it just yet, but I promise you, based on his campaigning, if this is true, it was an amazingly poor choice.
And the Password Was…
So, had a few guesses? – Well, if you correctly chose “MAGA2020!” then give yourself a pat on the back. Yes, apparently, this was the password (at least for a period of time) that was used on Donald Trump’s Twitter account. Worse, he also found that despite the clear prominence of it (lord knows Donald Trump said it enough!), no two-tier authentication was in place at the time meaning that with this educated guess, he’d had even less difficulty than anticipated.
Now, for the sake of balance, we should note that Donald Trump has always denied that this was true (regarding the actual password). In addition, Twitter has no apparent record of the account being accessed from Victor Gevers’s location. It seems, however, that the judges in the Netherlands are not convinced by these apparent denials.
While it’s difficult to prove the story entirely for certain, given that Victor Gevers immediately volunteered to authorities that he’d successfully breached the security of the account, the judges believe that he acted ethically and will, therefore, not face any charges. They also appear to be entirely satisfied that “MAGA2020!” was indeed the password used on the account.
If you do, therefore, perhaps also utilize some kind of catchphrase as your own social media password, you might want to think about changing it.
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
