Hacker Has Message For President Trump: Change Your Security Settings
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Does President Trump need to change his security settings on Twitter? One hacker thinks so and a local cybersecurity expert agrees.
An anonymous hacker has a message for Donald Trump: "Change your emails & Fix settings."
According to @WauchulaGhost, @POTUS, @FLOTUS, & @VP twitter accounts are more vulnerable because they haven't selected two factor authentication.
Drexel cyber security expert Dr. Rob D'Ovidio says,"You go under your security setting in Twitter and you click the box enhance security for password resetting and what that will do is require you to type in a cell phone number for example if you want to change your password credential."
The current settings allow anyone to click "forgot password" and select the accounts. The next screen says "we've found the following information associated with your account" and a partially redacted email address for password resetting.
WauchulaGhost told CNN, "being able to fill in the missing letters and guess someone's email address is the first step hackers take when trying to breach an account.
D'Ovidio it's not something that the average person is going to be able to do, but calls this warning a wake-up call for everyone.
"These security enhancements are not just recommended for people like the president, vice president, the first lady," everyone at this point should be moving towards multi-factor authentication whether its to log into your Twitter account, your Facebook account, your email. It's just good security hygiene and a good security practice for everyone"
It appears the warning worked. On Thursday afternoon @Wauchulaghost sent a tweet to Mr. Trump's social media director: "Hey @DanScavino, Looks like you got all the Gmail accounts removed. Have a nice day, I'm going fishing now :) #GhostOfNoNation @POTUS"
Wauchula made headlines this past summer when he breached over 500 pro-ISIS accounts and replacing content with images of porn and gay pride messages.
