John McAfee Twitter Hacked

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Twitter

It appears that John McAfee became victim of a SMS-swapping attack, where his cell phone carrier was tricked into transferring his number to a different cell phone. Following this, the cell phone number could be used to receive the two-factor authentication code which can be used to recover a lost Twitter account. His Twitter followers were greeted with "coin of the day" tweets which he didn't send, and some users may have been influenced to buy certain coins which would drive up the price. There are no specific reports of users losing money.

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

About Twitter

"Mr McAfee came to prominence in the 1980s when he founded a company that released the first commercial anti-virus software - McAfee VirusScan - and helped spark a multi-billion dollar industry."

"While McAfee earned fame for his role in McAfee’s successful antivirus and computer security company, he is also notoriously flaky and is known to have been involved in more than one confrontation with law enforcement. So it’s not as if he’s an unlikely target for hackers."

"Currently, he’s involved with a bitcoin mining company, and was tweeting “Coin of the Day” tips to his followers on a regular basis. This was also the focus of the alleged hack on his account."

"[Twitter] offers two-factor authentication - in which a person must enter a code sent to a mobile phone in addition to a password to access an account - to avoid such incidents.'

"John McAfee, the maverick founder of McAfee Associates, has claimed his Twitter account was hacked, despite him using two-factor authentication to protect his account."

"McAfee said attackers shared cryptocurrency suggestions and made them look his own tips, which he regularly tweeted to his followers. When replies on Twitter prompted him to turn on the service’s native two-factor authentication, he showed evidence of his phone being allegedly hacked, and the 2FA code intercepted by the hackers."

As for the alleged 2FA breach, McAfee tweeted, “The first indication that I had been hacked was turning on my cell phone. There was an error message, and I knew at that point that my phone had been compromised. All that the hacker did was compromise my Twitter account. It could have been worse.”

"The hacked tweets started sharing cryptocurrency suggestions and then McAfee had to announce that he wouldn’t be doing these posts any longer."

"Urgent: My account was hacked. Twitter has been notified. The coin of the day tweet was not me. As you all know... I am not doing a coin of the day anymore!!!!"

"As of now, no group or individual has taken responsibility for the hack. One speculation is it is the work of bots looking to drive specific cryptocurrency values up or down." "Several of his 530,000 followers have speculated that the person responsible might have been able to profit by encouraging others to push the mentioned crypto-currencies higher."

"McAfee believes the hacker intercepted the code for his login, which would be surprising and a bigger breach of security than a Twitter account being hacked. He also added that he had since then removed two-factor authentication from all of his accounts as a precaution."

"I was on a boat at the time and could not go to my carrier (AT&T) to have the issue corrected. "All that the hacker did was compromise my Twitter account. It could have been worse."

The cyber-security pioneer has rebuffed suggestions that the alleged incident undermined his own credentials saying: "I have no control over Twitter's security". "Though I am a security expert, I have no control over Twitter's security. I have haters. I am a target. People make fake accounts, fake screenshots, fake claims. I am a target for hackers who lost money and blame me. Please take responsibility for yourselves. Adults only please."

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

• Known history of when and how the service was started.
• What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
• What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
• Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
• Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
• How were people recruited to participate?
• Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

• Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
• Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - John McAfee Twitter Hacked

Date	Event	Description
December 27th, 2017 4:04:00 PM MST	Main Event	Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Total Amount Lost

No funds were lost.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.