{"id":67441,"date":"2016-12-22T16:35:10","date_gmt":"2016-12-23T00:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/securingtomorrow.mcafee.com\/?p=67441"},"modified":"2025-08-31T20:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T03:19:08","slug":"ourmine-netflix-twitter-hack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/internet-security\/ourmine-netflix-twitter-hack\/","title":{"rendered":"OurMine Takes to Twitter, Hacking Netflix and Marvel Accounts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another day, another OurMine hack. At least that\u2019s been the notion of the past year, many of us in the cybersecurity community would say. So far in 2016, the infamous hacker group has made its rounds breaking and entering online accounts, from Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s social profiles<\/a>, to Minecraft accounts<\/a>, to Business Insider\u2019s website<\/a> (just to name a few). Each scenario was a proclaimed white hat<\/a> effort, aiming to test the password strength of influential accounts and showcase far-too-prevalent security weaknesses. The latest display from the OurMine team? The compromise of Netflix\u2019s and Marvel\u2019s Twitter accounts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what happened: on Wednesday morning, Netflix\u2019s Twitter account went rogue, and OurMine was behind the wheel<\/a>. It all started with an announcement tweet from the group, claiming that they were \u201cjust testing [Netflix\u2019s] security,\u201d and invited the company to contact them for their security needs. Now, that\u2019s quite a pitch.<\/p>\n

\"picture1\"<\/p>\n

Source: Netflix\u2019s Twitter Account<\/em><\/p>\n

The period of compromise was about 40 minutes<\/a>, as a series of tweets coming from both OurMine and Netflix\u2019s social media team were released in turns. By Wednesday afternoon, Netflix confirmed that complete control of the account had been restored.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, Marvel\u2019s<\/a> and the NFL\u2019s<\/a> Twitter account were taken over by OurMine that afternoon as well. One thing\u2019s for sure: this team of hackers knows how to play to the audience. These high-profile accounts are just additions to their growing list of victims, all hacks meant to teach security lessons rather than do any meaningful harm.<\/p>\n

In other words, this was an invasive, and frankly illegal, advertisement of their security services. However, such a back-handed effort draws attention to at least one thing\u2014we all need to re-think the way we access our devices and apps. Especially when cybercriminals can get into an app either through a weak password, or a flimsy one from an authorized app, that happens to be connected (say, when your Facebook is connected to another service you use).<\/p>\n

Tips to Stay Secure<\/h2>\n

So, to stay secure when authorizing and accessing apps and services across devices, here are a couple tips:<\/p>\n