Cybersecurity pioneer John McAfee is warning users that anyone can be hacked after someone allegedly broke into his Twitter account to promote cryptocurrency investments.
McAfee claims the threat actor hacked his phone through his carrier, AT&T, and moved his phone number to another phone and sent tweets promoting several different cryptocurrencies within a matter of minutes.
“Prior to being hacked, my phone was totally disabled, you couldn't call into it, you could not call out from it,” the researcher said in a YouTube video published Dec. 30, 2017. “So everything coming in including my text messages went to another phone number.”
McAfee iterated that this was something out of his and everyone else's control as hackers are becoming more proficient and sophisticated in their hacking techniques. He went on to cite he isn't sure if the attackers used a zero-day technique to perform the attack and suggested that someone at AT&T may have been bribed in order to carry it out.
The motivation, McAfee said, was most likely to leverage the researchers influence on users when he makes cryptocurrency recommendations by investing in coins beforehand and selling them off as their values increase. McAfee also warned more hackers will set their sights on online cryptocurrency exchanges as it would be easier to target them than individual wallets.
