Hacking of the Twitter account of the Venezuelan news site Analítica.com
On June 30, 2016, the Twitter account of the Venezuelan news portal Analítica.com (@analitica), which had more than 80,200 followers, was hacked and hijacked. The attackers blocked access for the outlet’s social media team and successively changed the username to @datacaracas, @laboratorijhrva, @frazestranice, @d7893user, and @greeceloveplus, in addition to deleting recent posts. According to the outlet, Twitter’s representative for Latin America informed them via email that there was an intention to sell the account, and it is presumed that a hacker was hired to carry out the attack. Analítica regained control approximately 24 hours later, with Twitter’s intervention. The perpetrator has not been definitively identified.
Impact details
Analitica temporarily lost control of its Twitter account for about 24 hours; the attackers changed the usernames and deleted recent posts. There is no public evidence that any confidential data was stolen.
Classification & severity
- Category
- Intrusions
- Subtype
- social media account takeover
- Confidence
- High
Public Space and Analytics: Takeover of the media outlet’s Twitter account, username changes, deleted posts, and recovery after approximately 24 hours.
Severity assessment
Medium- Functional impact
- Degraded (non-critical)
- Information impact
- Integrity loss
- Affected scope
- Single system
- Critical service
- None
- Public confidence
- Limited
- Recoverability
- Regular
Temporary takeover of a media outlet’s social media channel, involving changes to usernames and deleted posts; no confidential data was exposed, and there was no impact on critical services.
Timeline
Analítica.com’s Twitter account @analitica is hijacked; the attackers block the team and successively change the username (@datacaracas, @laboratorijhrva, @frazestranice, @d7893user, @greeceloveplus).
After about 24 hours, Analítica regained control of the account with the help of Twitter and its social media department.
Espacio Público publishes a detailed report on the hacking of Analítica's Twitter account.