McAfee which happens to be America’s top computer security software provider felt extremely embarrassed yesterday when it learned that its LinkedIn page was hijacked by an individual or a group of hackers.
The cyber attack on McAfee’s LinkedIn page happened at 9:30 PM EST on Sunday and the hackers soon managed to deface the page of the company on the professional social network.
NOTE-It’s already a known fact that McAfee was acquired by a private equity firm called TPG in September’16 and the deal closed on April 3rd,2017.
Once the cyber-hijack and defacement of McAfee’s LinkedIn page were done by the hackers, they started to watch Twitter for reactions and made comments on their hijack deed.
Perhaps the Sunday’s hijack could have been possible due to recycled credentials, as McAfee did not update its LinkedIn page’s security settings with 2-factor authentication.
As per the sources of our Cybersecurity Insiders, it was a compromised LinkedIn password which enabled the McAfee hijacker gain access to the company’s official LinkedIn page. There is a high probability that the hacker might also take a chance from a larger data breach like the one LinkedIn experienced in 2012.
And the hacker of the LinkedIn page said that more such interesting cyber attacks will follow in this month and McAfee might have to deal with more such surprises in next three months.
Furthermore, the hackers might also want to take down McAfee’s twitter page soon and it’s better if the California-based company’s security professionals keep a watchful eye from now on their social media presence.
For this reason, we the team of cyber security insiders ask you all to follow below steps to keep your social media accounts safe-
a.) Go for an alphanumeric password which is also enriched with special characters.
b.) Opt for a 2-way authentication while logging into your account.
c.) Never share your credentials with others
d.) Change your password at least once in 6 weeks.
Hope, this helps!
