A well-known hacking group struck again and hijacked Twitter accounts for FC Barcelona and the Olympics.  This hack marked the reappearance of the hacking group, OurMine, and also revealed some of the vulnerabilities of Twitter accounts, especially with regard to third party tools.

The hackers’ and Twitter’s sides of the story

Twitter issued a statement that the OurMine group hijacked the accounts using a third-party platform.  Twitter added it took security precautions once it became aware of the hack.  It locked the compromised accounts and started working with its partners to restore them.

OurMine said that it used security issues with employees in order to gain access to a third-party application.

This is not the first time the group has hijacked a sports account – just before the Super bowl last month, it compromised the accounts of several NFL teams, including the Chiefs and the 49ers.

The hacking exploits have drawn media attention to its claims that everything is “hackable.”

 White Hat?

OurMine claims five members and purports to be a “white hat” group, which hacks simply to raise awareness of cyber vulnerabilities.  After hacking the official Twitter account of the Olympics, the group posted, “Hi, we are OurMine. Everything is hackable.”

The victims – the International Olympic Committee and FC Barcelona – -are investigating.  What is certain is that, whether OurMine is “white hat” or not, it has drawn attention to the risk of a hack of social media.