Security researcher Victor Gevers claims to have gained access to Trump’s Twitter account after successfully guessing the password. However, Twitter says it has no evidence the account break-in actually occurred.
(Credit: Twitter) The security around President Trump’s Twitter account is grabbing headlines after a Dutch ethical hacker claims to have successfully broken in by using the password «maga2020!” However, both Twitter and the White House are casting doubt on the story, making it unclear if Trump’s account was truly secured with only a weak password. The alleged break-in was done by Victor Gevers, a security researcher who’s uncovered vulnerabilities and unsecured databases before. He told Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant that he logged into the president’s account last Friday in order to test whether it was secure. And according to him, it wasn’t. On his fifth attempt he managed to break in by trying the combination “maga2020!” a reference to the “Make America Great Again” slogan Trump has been using on the campaign trail. “I expected to be blocked after four failed attempts. Or at least would be asked to provide additional information,” Gevers told the publication. But he encountered no two-factor authentication in place, or any other safeguards to check his identity. However, Twitter is dismissing the report. «We’ve seen no evidence to corroborate this claim, including from the article published in the Netherlands today,» a company spokesperson said.
