Out to dinner on a Saturday night time, we come dwelling late. I verify my mail, see an e mail change request made to my Twitter account hours earlier (above). I click on via the hyperlink to disclaim the request + say this isn’t me, nevertheless it’s too late: The e-mail related to the account, the password, and even the username have all been already modified.
I file a report, which generates a Kafkaesque hellscape of automated e-mail loops, none of which ever attain a human and none of which satisfactorily resolve the problem. The inquiry is closed (no motion taken) and I get a stunning e mail asking me to rank the standard of the Twitter Help (Timeliness 8/10; Did we resolve the problem? 0/10).
I create a brand new account with @Barry_Ritholtz, then change it to my outdated Twitter deal with (@Ritholtz), to ensure nobody else can seize it. And I preserve including extra data to the e-mail response from Twitter Help.
So in case you see this put up, remember that @RITHOLTZWEALTHS just isn’t me or the agency, it’s the hackers, and that’s not me posting racist crap or pushing shitcoins.
Over the 36 hours because the hack came about, Twitter Help has been an train in frustration. From the brand new account, I filed an impersonation report, noting that my account was hacked and the brand new account (@Ritholtz) is what I’m utilizing to entry assist. They requested for a authorities ID, so possibly that’s a great signal.
If there’s a silver lining, its that this led me to alter a lot of passwords, add two-factor authentication1 (2FA) in all places, and a separate digital authenticator.
I’m approach too hooked on Twitter as a information/analysis software and wish to seek out backups.
Within the meantime, in case you could be so form as to file an impersonation report for @RitholtzWealths it will be vastly appreciated . . .
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1. I had 2FA on Twitter till some genius thought eradicating it was a great advertising thought to promote month-to-month subscrtiptions.
