Mark Zuckerberg Hacked Because He’s Bad at Passwords

A number of social media accounts belonging to Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg have been hacked, and it’s all because he re-used his awful, awful password. The hackers, who operate under the name OurMine Team, gained access to Zuckerberg’s Twitter and Pinterest accounts via a password obtained through the recent LinkedIn data dump.

Ouch. Mark Zuckerberg's social media accounts have been hacked pic.twitter.com/KvVmXOIg5s

— Ben Hall (@Ben_Hall) June 5, 2016

Zuckerberg’s password was “dadada,” and he used that password to secure multiple online accounts.

A Tweet – now deleted, courtesy of International Business Times – posted from Zuckerberg’s hacked Twitter account, read:

“Hey, @finkd You were in LinkedIn Database with the password “dadada”! DM for proof”

The LinkedIn hack that allowed OurMine Team access to Zuckerberg’s accounts dates back to 2012, the results of which have only now become public knowledge. That means that the billionaire has been using the same terrible password, for multiple accounts, for at least four years.

I think we all get why using the same password for multiple online accounts is bad – if one gets hacked, that potentially leaves all of your accounts vulnerable – but why is “dadada” such a bad password? It’s short and it’s simple, making it very easy to brute force, hack or no.

Let the King of Facebook’s sad story be a lesson to you, kids: do passwords better.