Facebook’s Twitter and Instagram handles were compromised earlier today, as tweets and posts began showing up that said: “Well, even Facebook is hackable but at least their security better than Twitter”. A group called OurMine claimed responsibility for the hack, which reportedly was also responsible for the NFL’s Twitter account hack last month.
The hackers began posting tweets from Facebook and Messenger accounts, which were constantly being deleted by the company (as seen in Jane Manchun Wong’s tweet here). The accounts were compromised for about 30 minutes, after which they were locked.
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Twitter confirmed in a statement to some journalists that the accounts were indeed compromised and that it was working with Facebook to restore the accounts:
As soon as we were made aware of the issue, we locked the compromised accounts and are working closely with our partners at Facebook to restore them. Facebook later posted in a tweet that it had “secured and restored” access.
Interestingly, the hackers seem to have had taken control of Facebook and Messenger Instagram handles (spotted by The Verge). Though the hackers claimed that “Facebook” was hackable, it wasn’t Facebook that was hacked, but its social media accounts alone, such as Twitter and Instagram.
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Some of our corporate social accounts were briefly hacked but we have secured and restored access
— Facebook (@Facebook) February 8, 2020
The tweets by "OurMine" were posted from "Khoros", a third-party service that helps its customers interact with and post on social media – including Instagram and Twitter. From the tweets, it looks like the hackers were promoting their security services and did not seem to have any malicious intent.
Screenshots Source: TheVerge