Hacks happen on the internet all of the time. It is just part of living in the digital age and most of us do our best to make sure it won't happen by using simple encryption or having better passwords than "Password1234." But major companies generally have a lot more safeguards to prevent these kinds of things so that they won't have to suffer the consequences of some hacker gaining access to user info. It looks like Marvel and Netflix, two monstrous companies, aren't immune to hacks as they have both been subject to one from the same group in the last 24-hours.
Both the Marvel Entertainment (as well as other accompanying Marvel accounts) and Netflix Twitter accounts were recently hacked by a group known as OurMine. The tweets were quickly deleted by the various accounts, but the message from OurMine was clear and should only concern the companies themselves, as user info doesn't seem to be part of their hack. Here is what the message said.
"Hey, it's OurMine, Don't worry we are just testing your security, contact us to help you with your security contactourmineteam@gmail.com."
This isn't the first time OurMine, known as a White Hat or Friendly Hack group, has hacked a high-profile account either. Previously, the group also hacked the Twitter accounts of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, in addition to the YouTube accounts of a dozen YouTube celebrities. Aside from the wrong-doing of the hacks themselves, there appears to be no threat to the companies or any of the users that have been reported today or from the hacks in the past. It mostly appears to be a legitimate demonstration of OurMine's capabilities, or as legitimate as can be considering the circumstances.
What is perhaps most surprising this time around is the Marvel accounts being hacked in this cyber attack. Marvel itself is huge, but the company is owned by Disney, which is about as big as it gets these days. The studio just announced earlier in the week that they crossed $7 billion at the worldwide box office, becoming the first studio in history to do so. It looks like they may need to funnel some of that money into some extra cyber security safeguards. That said, Disney also probably won't take this too lightly, so those behind the OurMine hacks could be in some serious trouble if the hack can be traced back to the actual individuals responsible. It isn't likely Netflix or Marvel will be sending them a thank you email.
If any users are concerned about their personal account security, Twitter does offer some extra level of authentication for those who want to make use of it. The social media site has a two-factor authentication system users can set up, which will send a numerical text to the user's phone every time someone tries to log into the account from a new device. You can check out some of the OurMine messages from the accounts for yourself below.
