Donald Trump’s Twitter account was allegedly hacked by a Dutch security expert – using the password “maga2020!”.
Victor Gevers claims he gained access to the US president’s account and was allowed to roam in his direct messages, post tweets and change the profile name, De Volkskrant newspaper reported.
“I expected to be blocked after four failed attempts,” Gevers said. “Or at least would be asked to provide additional information.”
Gevers, dubbed an “ethical hacker,” said it took just five attempts to get into the president’s account, according to TechCrunch. He said the president did not have a two-factor authentication set up.
But Twitter said there is “no evidence” of the claim made by Gevers, saying it “proactively implemented account security measures” for high-profile accounts.
“We’ve seen no evidence to corroborate this claim, including from the article published in the Netherlands today,” Twitter said in a statement.
“We proactively implemented account security measures for a designated group of high-profile, election-related Twitter accounts in the United States, including federal branches of government.”
It’s the second time Gevers says he has gained access to Trump’s Twitter account.
The first time was in 2016, when Gevers and two others extracted and cracked Trump’s password from the 2012 LinkedIn breach.
The researchers took his password — “yourefired” — his catchphrase from the television show The Apprentice — and found it let them into his Twitter account.
Gevers reported the breach to local authorities in the Netherlands, with suggestions on how Trump could improve his password security.
One of the passwords he suggested at the time was “maga2020!”, he said.
Gevers said he “did not expect” the password to work years later.