Hackers used a platform to hack the official Twitter accounts of the Olympic Games and FC Barcelona, to publish a message that the well‑known player Neymar would return to the football team.
The hacking group called OurMine, which last month breached the social media accounts of the National Football Federation (NFL) and 15 of its teams, hijacked the accounts of the Olympic Games as well as those of FC Barcelona.
According to Engadget, Twitter confirmed the hack, saying OurMine used a “third-party platform” to take control of the accounts. Twitter has closed the affected accounts and is “working closely” with partners to restore them. The International Olympic Committee said it is “investigating a possible breach” while Barcelona said it would conduct a review of the situation.
Ourmine is believed to be based in Saudi Arabia and has hacked the social media accounts of the NFL’s 49ers, Cardinals, Bears, Bills, Broncos, Browns, Bucs, Cowboys, Colts, Chiefs, Eagles, Giants, Packers, Texans and Vikings over the past month. Most of the tweets posted by the OurMine hackers came from Khoros – a web service used by digital marketing and PR departments to manage social media accounts and is linked to a social media account as a third-party application.
Ourmine has been involved in high-profile hacking in the past, including hacking into the social media accounts of celebrities like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey , and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, to name a few. The group has been active since 2016 and is believed to be made up of several Saudis.
