Jeepers! Hacked on Twitter

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Vince Bond Jr.
Automotive News
February 25, 2013 - 12:01 am ET

Jeep brand's Twitter account was hacked on Tuesday, Feb. 19, and given a thorough, McDonald's-inspired makeover.

The Jeep logo on its Twitter Web page was swapped for a Cadillac logo, and the page's wallpaper was replaced with a photo of a vehicle sporting the fast-food giant's colors and golden arches.

After the incident, a computer forensics expert advised companies to avoid using the same password for multiple accounts and to rotate passwords periodically. Lee Neubecker, president of Forensicon, a Chicago digital forensics firm, added that passwords should be a complicated mix of letters, numbers and symbols.

Scott Monty, Ford's social media head, in an e-mail to Automotive News, wrote: "Our protocol at Ford was to ask our global teams to change all of their Twitter passwords immediately to more secure combinations of letters numbers and symbols."

General Motors changed passwords on all of its Twitter accounts last week to safeguard itself.

Rebecca Harris, a GM social media strategist, said: "It could happen to any of us."

You can reach Vince Bond Jr. at vbond@crain.com. -- Follow Vince on Twitter

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