Hackers have now broken into Google CEO Sundar Pichai's accounts

Monday dejection? Sundar Pichai has it worse. The CEO of Google is next in line to have his online accounts hacked after Marker Zuckerberg. The iii-man hacker outfit who previously broke into Facebook main's Twitter and Pinterest accounts using the leaked LinkedIn data, has now hacked into Pichai's Quora account.

However, unlike Zuckerberg's "dadada," hackers haven't used the passwords exposed past the 2022 LinkedIn data alienation. OurMine, the Saudi based hacker outfit, has claimed that they discovered a vulnerability in Quora exploiting which they broke into Pichai'due south account. The group says that they informed Quora virtually this exploit, simply didn't become whatsoever response from the Q&A customs.

The hack became visible late Sunday night when OurMine posted answers on Quora using Pichai'south account, which were and so cantankerous posted on his official Twitter feed. Since both the accounts were linked, information technology gave the grouping the ability to publicize their hack to over 500,000 followers of Sundar Pichai. All the tweets accept now been removed from Pichai's feed.

The hacker group is branding itself as a security firm, and claims that it's testing security of accounts and platforms to teach people to secure their accounts better. Their goal, they say, is to expose these vulnerabilities and then that these incidents don't occur over again. "We are merely testing people security (sic), nosotros never modify their passwords, we did it considering there is other hackers can hack them and change everything," OurMine toldTNW.

This may not be the best mode to increase security sensation, but that is how this particular "security business firm" works. The group also offers back up to those information technology targets, scanning their online accounts and website security vulnerabilities. According to reports, OurMine charges from $100 to $5,000 for these "scans," and has managed to make $sixteen,500 from these security services it offers. Bragging rights aside, targeting celebrities also earns OuMine some clients.

Now, why did Quora let information technology happen? Well, Quora has said that the breach was likely the result of Pichai using the same countersign across multiple services, and not a flaw in Quora's security:

Nosotros are confident that Sundar Pichai's business relationship was not accessed via a vulnerability in Quora's systems. This is consistent with by reports where OurMine exploited previous password leaks on other services to proceeds access to accounts on Twitter or Facebook. We too have no record of a report by OurMine pointing to a vulnerability.

We recommend that people use unique passwords for accounts on different services, and so that a security breach on ane service does not atomic number 82 to attackers gaining access to accounts on other services. Safeguarding our users is very important to us, which makes security at Quora 1 of our highest priorities. - Quora

Whether OurMine really did apply a leaked database to hack into Pichai'south business relationship to get some more than publicity, or Quora missed the received vulnerability reports - nosotros tin't say. But, what nosotros can surely say is to change your Quora password, specially if you use the same password across different services.