AV-TEST and AV-Comparatives are two of the most renowned anti-malware assessment firms around. However despite such a reputation, the former finds itself today in a pretty embarrassing situation. The company"s English language Twitter account (@avtestorg) was hacked last month on the 25th. What makes matters worse is the fact that after more than a week, the account remains compromised still.
Our English-language Twitter account "avtestorg" has been hacked and we no longer have access to the account or tweets at the moment. We are already in touch with the Twitter support to resolve this issue as soon as possible.
— AV-TEST GmbH (DE) (@avtestde) July 25, 2022
But you"re a cybersecurity company
— シャフィク＠マラヤ大学 (@ApeetK) July 26, 2022
While AV-TEST couldn"t stop the breach of its own account, it responded promptly, via its German account, to report the issue to Twitter support. However it looks like the social media support has not been very helpful as the firm reached out to Twitter again the following couple of days with no success in recovering the account which stays hacked even a week later.
Dear @TwitterSupport our main account @avtestorg was hijacked by an unknown third party on Monday this week. We filed a support case via web and mail immediately and have supplied all requested information but are not receiving any helpful answers. Can you please look into this?
— AV-TEST GmbH (DE) (@avtestde) July 27, 2022
@TwitterSupport Can you please check the status of our case? We need help to get access to our account @avtestorg again. We have sent you all the required information two times already without any answers from your side.
— AV-TEST GmbH (DE) (@avtestde) July 28, 2022
We will keep an eye on the situation here and update the article in case things change.
Update: AV-TEST has announced that it has been able to recover its Twitter account. The security firm made this announcement via its now-recovered English account:
We"re back, we have full access to our Twitter account @avtestorg again. Thanks to everyone involved for their support and help!
— AV-TEST GmbH (@avtestorg) August 5, 2022