back to article After Dutch bloke claims he hacked Trump's Twitter by guessing password, web biz says there's 'no evidence'

Donald Trump's Twitter password was easily guessed, and he still isn't using multi-factor authentication, claims a Dutch hacker who on Thursday bragged he broke into the President's account last week. Twitter says it has "no evidence" this claim is true. Victor Gevers told Vrij Nederland he tried the password maga2020! and …

  1. Celeste Reinard

    Attention!

    I really really really would like attention, since I am a world famous person (I am on the internet, and everybody can read what I said), I, er, thingy. Anyway, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that your password is ********! That is because I am a world famous hacker and security person with many famous friends in high places. And not an attention seeker at all! And everybody is jealous and will deny that I am famous.

    ... My first instinct says it's a, well, hoax. And I am not obsessed at all. I just like the glow of all the attention.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Attention!

      Are you talking about Donald or the alleged hacker?

      I also take issue with "which is followed today by 87 million people". Firstly we don't know if they are actually unique people and secondly following doesn't mean people really read every word tweeted.

      I bring this up as I feel Twitter would rather we took the implication that there are in fact 87 million people who hang off every word and change their lives accordingly...

      Rant over :-)

  2. redpawn

    Nothing to see here

    Your President, Donald J. Trump is NOT an IDIOT or a narcissist. It is impossible to guess the password of a VERY STABLE GENIUS!

    1. sgp

      Re: Nothing to see here

      Well yeah, unless of course you have 197 IQ and know about 15% of the password.

      1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

        Re: Nothing to see here

        Well, the allegation here is that he has spent millions of dollars over the last six months in an attempt to make sure everyone in the US knows *100%* of his password.

    2. six_tymes

      Re: Nothing to see here

      And crazy uncle Joe Biden is NOT an incompetent MORON, lying, flip-flopping, insincere, double-talking, radical socialist, terrorist excusing, bleeding heart, narcissistic, scientific and economic moron that spent eight years-in the White House trying to destroy the US.

      no, not at all...

  3. chuBb.
    Black Helicopters

    I want to believe

    I feel like mulders poster..

    I doubt its real but, I have also had to weaken security for many a company boss who couldn't manage the complexity of capital letters, vowel to numerals substitutions, not easily guessed, or more than 8 chars...

    So if this was myth busters I guess I'd call it as plausible

    1. Chris G

      Re: I want to believe

      There are many bosses and other high executiv who should be thaniful that password entry doesn't require joined up writing.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I want to believe

      It's a sign of how bad things are that I'm more likely to believe a Netherlands hacker I've never heard of than the president of the United States.

    3. chivo243 Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: I want to believe

      Oh, yeah! This ^^^ Been there, living the dream!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Did anyone try "Covfefe" as the password in 2017

    1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
      Joke

      After the 4th of November, try

      "Ivanka2024!"

      1. Danny 2

        SPANKMEIVANKA

  5. smudge
    Boffin

    What would you have guessed?

    The hacker tried a bunch of likely passwords for the President's profile, and claims he hit the jackpot on his sixth guess: maga2020!

    I'll bet it used to be "lockherup" :)

    Icon is a picture of the hacker - "somebody with 197 IQ".

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What would you have guessed?

      I wonder if Donald used the same password on his Adult FriendFinder account?

    2. chivo243 Silver badge

      Re: What would you have guessed?

      I would have tried the infamous Grab her ***** or Don'taskmeabouttherussianhotelroom but these have more characters than he can count to... with his shoes on that is...

  6. KBeee

    I'm more interested in

    which satirical website was tweeted that Trump thought was real. But he thinks Breitbart and Fox are real news outlets so no surprise there.

    1. pdebarra
      FAIL

      Re: I'm more interested in

      It is linked in the article.

  7. Winkypop Silver badge
    Trollface

    Well, Trump is stupid enough

    See title

  8. imanidiot Silver badge
    Windows

    yeah right

    Like Twitter would actually admit they didn't detect something as obviously weird as someone logging into Trumps account from the Netherlands...

    I'll remain skeptical on both accounts to be honest.

    --> Put on your tinfoil hats, it's ALL part of conspiracy to mindcontrol us!

    1. Blackjack Silver badge

      Re: yeah right

      Twitter is one of the few sites left that accepts AOL emails when you register and to prove it I registered a Twitter account with one just last week.

      Sorry but I still believe the hacker more.

      1. NetBlackOps

        Re: yeah right

        Heck, I still get forwarded AOL emails.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: yeah right

      I think that the last time this was done (by the same person?), he did it by using a VPN so he appeared to come from the US. So, assuming he'd not making it up this time (which I'm just not sure about) he probably did that again.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    But...

    Isn't hacking into someone's account illegal, even in the Netherlands?

    Or is computer abuse and cracking perfectly fine now if you just target people who are unpopular.

    1. Sgt_Oddball
      Big Brother

      Re: But...

      Yes, but then evidence of the crime is required (at least in a sane and reasonable society).

      I could quite as easily state that I shot and killed President Kennedy, but unless there's at least some small piece of evidence that proves it... Then it's pure fantasy.

      (other facts like I wasn't born yet are mearly distractions from the truth).

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Alien

        Re: But...

        It's also just wrong: I know this because I was the second gunmam. Unless there was a third gunman?

        (Not being born yet is not an excuse: everyone knows we liberal elitist ilumminoids have access to time machines.)

        1. Eclectic Man Silver badge

          Re: But...

          I find it interesting that he tried to tell 'the authorities' and Trump, rather than, for example sending a message to the Investigative Journalists telling them what he'd found. Had I done it I might have been tempted to tweet saying that POTUS Twitter account and been hacked and nothing posted on it should be believed, ever.

          We'll know if Gevers did it if he mysteriously disappears or is extradited to the USA on charges of computer hacking.

  10. Allan George Dyer
    Joke

    'Twitter says it has "no evidence" this claim is true.'...

    So the hacker posted the most outrageous lies he could think of as The Pres, and no-one could tell the difference?

  11. fidodogbreath
    WTF?

    WTF?

    strong 10-character-minimum password

    Twitter considers a 10-character password to be "strong" for a high-value target? My Register password is longer than that.

    1. chivo243 Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: WTF?

      10 is a good minimum... better than a maximum! I've seen that!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: WTF?

      Bragging about your length again ?

      1. Eclectic Man Silver badge

        Re: WTF?

        My password is AtLeast10Chars!

        Oh, hang on...

    3. AlbertH

      Re: WTF?

      https://xkcd.com/936/

      Good passwords are easy!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Boffin

        Re: WTF?

        Well, they're easy if the thing the password is for does not have idiot restrictions on length (many) or on required character set (many more), and, critically your long wordy passphrases use words from a large enough dictionary chosen randomly (so you must generate them using a program, which should use a RNG, not a PRNG): the machine in our heads which we use to generate 'random' strings of words is terrible. Interestingly the machine which remembers really random strings of words works much better, even when it's never seen at least some of the words before.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: WTF?

          NAB bank used to have an 8 character limit, but didn't actually tell anybody this. The password field let you enter more characters, it just ignored everything after the 8th. They just let you imagine that you had a longer stronger password.

          When they finally upgraded security on their website to allow more than 8 characters, they had to then tell users to only use the first 8 characters or login would fail.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's saying something when it's easy to believe the US President's passphrase was maga2020!

    Huh, I would have guessed "12345".

    As for the alleged hacker, he should have posted something conclusive from the hacked account (maybe upload a password protected archive somewhere public, then post the archive password from Trump's twitter).

    1. Mike 16

      Something conclusive?

      @AC: Had the "Hacker" posted "something conclusive", he would be in some black site now, or at the very least had an extradition request made against him. As it is, he'll "only" have a rough time traveling to the U.S. (as if a 197 IQ super-hacker would be that stupid).

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "12345"?!? That's the kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!

  13. Danny 2

    Star Trek stamps and foreign election interference

    Royal Mail will be selling a range of Star Trek stamps on November 13th. I asked my ex in Pennsylvania which one she'd like on a postcard, and she asked for all of them. Typical greedy American, my 50p offer now costs at least £9.45 and possibly £130. I said I'd send her the £9.45 sheet if she sent me proof she'd voted for Joe Biden. She voted Green last time and I suffered for it. I realise this is probably illegal but it's my Kobayashi Maru solution.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "tricking the unwary into handing over their Bitcoins"

    But shurely you need to be unwary to even have Bitcoins in the first place?

    At least tulip bulbs had some use and some real value...

  15. Erik4872

    Interesting

    If I were this guy, the first thing I'd do is DM the "fake news" outlets like the NY Times, Washington Post, etc. from the account to prove my hack worked. Even screenshots aren't enough when Twitter doesn't want the embarrassment and will sweep anything under the rug. What I wonder is what Twitter actually does for "famous people" accounts. MFA is too hard for most executives, celebrities, etc. so do they just lock it down to certain IPs/devices? Or do most celebrities have a whole social media department running their presence and they don't bother sending out random 3AM tweets themselves?

    If I were this guy and a jerk, I would set myself up in the markets just so, then let out some crazy tirade about Europe or China and profit while the financial markets collapse.

    1. Phil Kingston

      Re: Interesting

      |celebrities have a whole social media department running their presence

      Might just be one person, but yes I reckon they do. Maybe just a single PR person or agent.

  16. Phil Kingston

    Really?

    People still use Twitter? I'm on TikTok these days, with all the cool kids.

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