John McAfee has said his Twitter account was hacked and used to promote lesser-known crypto-currencies.<\/p>\n
The cyber-security pioneer has\u00a0rebuffed suggestions that the alleged incidentundermined his own credentials saying: “I have no control over Twitter’s security”.<\/p>\n
But he also posted that he\u00a0believed his mobile phone\u00a0had likely been compromised.<\/p>\n
Twitter declined to comment\u00a0but highlighted its security advice guide.<\/p>\n
The social network offers two-factor authentication – in which a person must enter a code sent to a mobile phone in addition to a password to access an account – to avoid such incidents.<\/p>\n
Mr McAfee told the BBC that he had activated the option, but added that he believed the hacker had intercepted the authentication code.<\/p>\n
“The first indication that I had been hacked was turning on my cell phone and seeing the attached image,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I knew at that point that my phone had been compromised.<\/p>\n
“I was on a boat at the time and could not go to my carrier (AT&T) to have the issue corrected.<\/p>\n
“All that the hacker did was compromise my Twitter account. It could have been worse.”<\/p>\n
Mr McAfee added that he had since removed two-factor authentication from all of his accounts as a precaution.<\/p>\n
The former presidential candidate is currently working on plans to sell the world’s most “hack-proof” smartphone.<\/p>\n
A press release issued earlier this month said it was\u00a0due for release in February.<\/p>\n
Crypto guru<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr McAfee came to prominence in the 1980s when he\u00a0founded a company\u00a0that released the first commercial anti-virus software – McAfee VirusScan – and helped spark a multi-billion dollar industry.<\/p>\n Although that business has since been sold to Intel, he still develops cyber-security products of his own.<\/p>\n The Scotland-born entrepreneur also heads up the Bitcoin mining operation MGT Capital Investments, which solves complicated mathematical problems to verify transactions in the virtual currency.<\/p>\n In recent times, he has come to be seen by some as a crypto-currency guru.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Mr McAfee began issuing a daily recommendation about which of the more obscure virtual currencies he recommended others should invest in.<\/p>\n These “coin of the day” picks often pre-empted a spike in the value of the selected assets.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Mr McAfee declared he would slow down his recommendations to once a week, with the next one due out on 1 January.<\/p>\n But the next day, his Twitter account began firing off picks in rapid succession.<\/p>\n These messages were later deleted and Mr McAfee posted that he had been hacked, adding that he had no clue how this had been achieved.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John McAfee has said his Twitter account was hacked and used to promote lesser-known crypto-currencies. The cyber-security pioneer has\u00a0rebuffed suggestions that the alleged incidentundermined his own credentials saying: “I have no control over Twitter’s security”. But he also posted that he\u00a0believed his mobile phone\u00a0had likely been compromised. Twitter declined to comment\u00a0but highlighted its security advice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":387092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[106],"tags":[15706,1030],"yoast_head":"\n