The recent cyberattack incidents are surprising as well as terrifying. The hacking group, which took over Facebook's accounts on Twitter and Instagram on February 7, the same threat actors successfully hacked Spanish football giant, Barcelona's Twitter account on Saturday, February 15
The group of cybercriminals, OurMine, claimed responsibility in a post on the Twitter timeline of the five-time UEFA Champions League winners. But the shocking part is this is not a surprising incident for Barcelona, as they faced a similar stunt in 2017.
The hackers left a note
The cybercriminals left a message as proof of the hacking incident which stated that "Hi, we are OurMine. Well this is the second time, the security level is better but still not the best.. to improve your accounts security.. Contact us: contact@o u r m i n e.org. For security services visit: o u r m i n e.org."
The tweet was removed from Barcelona's official page. As a response, the La Liga club later posted that:
"FC Barcelona's Twitter accounts have been hacked, which is why messages from outside our club have appeared, and which have been reported and deleted. The tweets were made through a third-party tool for data analytics.
FC Barcelona will conduct a cybersecurity audit and will review all protocols and links with third party tools, in order to avoid such incidents and to guarantee the best service to our members and fans. We apologise for any inconvenience this situation may have caused."
What happened in 2017?
A few years ago the cybercriminals went on the rampage by hacking the Twitter pages of Barcelona, as well as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai and HBO.
After the attack in 2017, the hackers posted on the Catalan club's page, "Welcome Angel Di Maria to FC Barcelona! #DiMariaFCB." Later, OurMine posted a second Tweet and while taking the responsibility for the breach they wrote that "Hi FC Barcelona, it's OurMine (Security Group), please contact us – ourmine.org-> Contact Us, and sorry for the hoax." Then again in a third tweet, they said, "Let's get #FCBHack trending on Twitter."
As per the previous reports, someone believed to be a spokesperson for OurMine described it as a Saudi account which promotes its own cybersecurity services and added that its intentions are to show people that everything is hackable.
Modus operandi
After the hackers attacked Facebook's Twitter and Instagram accounts, OurMine identified itself in the unauthorized posts which were again deleted soon after they were published.
OurMine tweeted from Facebook's Twitter handle at around 3:50 pm on February 7 that "Well, even Facebook is hackable but at least their security better than Twitter. To improve your accounts security Contact us: contact@o u r m i n e.org. For security services visit: o u r m i n e.org."
Olympic account hack
OurMine also attacked the official Twitter account of Olympics, confirmed a Twitter spokesperson. a spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee said in a statement that "The IOC can confirm that it is investigating a potential breach into some of its social accounts."
On the hacked account the threat actors left a similar note, stating that "Hi, we are OurMine," and added, "Everything is hackable." The deleted tweet then linked to the cybercriminal group's email address and added that "Everything is hackable."
